It’s important when watching any film to try and meet it on its terms. I anticipated “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” (GxK) to be an unserious monster mash more concerned with spectacle and action than characters and story. I anticipated correctly. Director Adam Wingard went light on plot, but heavy on action — the result is an immensely fun and memorable time at the movies. Yes, it would have been nice if the story and characters were as well developed as the monster action, however, because the monster’s fights are so spectacular and wild it more than makes up for it. It’s important going into GxK to not expect last year’s Godzilla Minus One; these are two separate versions with two distinct tones. To compare either is folly and is misunderstanding the intentionality of their respective directors and writers. On its own, GxK is a natural sequel to “Godzilla vs. Kong” (GvsK), continuing to develop Kong as his own three-dimensional character and not simply a giant ape. The film also takes care to expand on this current iteration of Godzilla’s role. If you are looking for entertaining, larger-than-life battles and depictions of two of cinema’s oldest monsters, then GxK is the film for you.
Back of the DVD Summary: Following some years after GvsK, we catch up with Kong in the Hollow Earth as he has made himself right at home. Kong continues his search for other apes like him, taking each day to explore deeper and deeper into the Hollow Earth. Meanwhile, both Godzilla, returning Dr. Andrews(Rebecca Hall), and her daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle) begin to detect an unexplainable signal from the Hollow Earth. Employing the help of newcomer Trapper and returning from GvsK Bernie, the conspiracy theorist, the cast of humans dive deep into Hollow Earth to untangle the mystery. All the while, the threat of the new villainous Skar King grows larger and larger; the kind of threat that could unite Godzilla and Kong.
Before diving into the aspects of the film I think are fantastic, let’s briefly discuss some of the negatives. For as much as I expected the film to be a bit more silly, there were still times that it veered too far from reality. For every fist pounding moment of Godzilla or Kong being awesome, there’s another moment where I rolled my eyes. For the sake of avoiding spoilers, I won’t get into specifics, but there are more than a few times where belief was not suspended, but shattered. The villain of the film was cool, but not at all menacing, and lacking in his ability to be a real threat to the other monsters. While the Skar King had likely the most personality of any of the Monsterverse antagonists, his actions and goals were a bit flat. At about the halfway point, there was a revelation concerning Jia and a prophecy that felt hamfisted and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Moreover, the eventual resolution of what the signal is felt unsatisfying and confusing; it felt like the creatives behind the choice didn’t know what they wanted it to be. The last major drawback is how Skar King’s plotline was resolved in the third act, that is to say the whole conflict ended no sooner than it began.
To get into the positives, there was a specific style of older Godzilla films employed from the 60-70s run of films that director Adam Wingard perfects here: unrelenting absurdity. Godzilla and Kong both were at the forefront of the story and are the driving forces behind it. Godzilla is the most aggressive and vicious he’s ever been in the Monsterverse, taking the level of ferocity from the prior film and amping it to 11. As mentioned previously, Kong is the definitive protagonist of the film, and he himself feels fully realized as a character. There is a scene with Kong and other giant apes where no dialogue is spoken, and yet I understood exactly what was going on because of the master class in body language and special effects. Maybe an overzealous claim, yet the scene revealed that with enough time and care, a giant monster film without human characters could be possible. I digress.
For any giant monster fans, this film is brimming with battle after battle, with visuals you didn’t know you wanted to see. Without giving away the context, there is a moment when Godzilla tail-whips a giant ape in midair. Don’t ask how — it’s just as dumb as it is cool. Kong gets a few stellar combat moments, with instances where his primal strength is on full display.
Ultimately, this is the most fun time I have had at the movies this year. The film delivers another monstrously entertaining entry in the ongoing monsterverse. I encourage all block-buster lovers to get out and give this film a watch on the biggest screen possible.