Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

• Directed by Adam Wingard
• March 25, 2024 (TCL Chinese Theatre) / March 29, 2024 (US)

Kong encounters more of his species in the Hollow Earth and must unite with Godzilla to stop the Skar King and the frost-breathing Shimo from conquering the Earth’s surface.

You watch the Godzilla x Kong movies not for the intricate plots or memorable characters but for the epic monster battles. “Lizard and monkey fight.” At least I do. I have seen them all in order and honestly forgot some of the characters we get here were returning characters. They could probably replace every character each movie with a new set of characters and nobody would care or even notice. Nobody watches these movies for the people. They watch them for a giant lizard and a giant gorilla. Unlike the ones from Japan-especially Godzilla Minus One-these are not to tell a human story with monsters. These are to tell a monster story with well-known monsters. These are alternately great and utterly forgettable.

What gets me in this world with giant monsters and a hollow Earth and everything humanity thought they knew upended the scientists at Monarch have trouble entertaining the idea of a psychic distress call from inside the Earth. These people know some things that others do not but even if they didn’t in a world of giant monsters (with the previously seen King Ghidorah being from space) a psychic distress call from the center of the Earth seems hard to swallow.

Conspiracy theorist and former Apex employee Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) is comic relief, to the point he becomes difficult to take seriously as a character. Monarch veterinarian Trapper (Dan Stevens) is comically crazy like a supporting character in an action comedy. Monarch scientist and anthropological linguist Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) is the resident mom who mostly worries. What exact tone are they going for here? The brief snippets of Classic top 40 rock make an already silly movie a little sillier. We have a giant gorilla and a giant lizard fighting. Do you want us to take it seriously or do you want us to consider it all a goof? I’m not sure if the producers even knew.

One of the more shocking moments comes early on when Kong uses Baby Kong as a melee weapon. He is swinging that kid around like a club! Darkly funny and a bit weird since the kid eventually bonds with him. This may be the only time you see a kid used as a weapon in a movie.

The key to everything character is becoming a bit of a cliché, but the young girl Jia (Kaylee Hottle) is the key to everything character in this movie. Surprise! She’s not the last of her kind but her people were a satellite settlement or something (I don’t know) and now she is the savior of everything. There is an evil ape king who is planning on conquering the world and using a Titan that caused the last Ice Age as part of his plot. All things considered I am curious what kind of government a giant ape would implement upon the planet.

It looks like much if not all the information about the Hollow Earth is being hidden from the outside world. That is pretty significant information which on the one hand could make some of the problems the world is dealing with such as the Italians being angry Godzilla will not go away, well, go away. The explanation being they’re doing it to keep that world from being exploited. No look at the morality of information control though. Godzilla Minus One demonstrated you can get deeper than big monster fight.

Some of the jungle scenes are done on sets while others are done outdoors. Understand I’m a great believer in 100% one or the other. I get doing the Hollow Earth Iwi civilization on a set but you cannot find an outdoor space that fits for the outdoor stuff? In this day of hi-def the change is very noticeable as compared to the days when moviemaking was all done on film. You cannot get away with it without breaking the illusion.

The human characters are pretty two dimensional. And that’s being kind. They just exist. The only mild arc we get is between the mom and the daughter with the daughter deciding she was staying with mom. Names are really meaningless here

That seems to contradict with the prophecy of this girl being the savior of the Iwi people in the Earth’s core. She doesn’t really do much of anything honestly that wouldn’t have occurred without her presence. Are they saving it for the next movie or did they just not think that bit through?

This is the thinnest of stories stretched out by numerous extensive battle scenes with massive destruction. Many of those battle scenes involve numerous cool monster designs. The return of Mothra was welcome. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is big and exciting and dumb. Dumb in a mostly crowd-pleasing way. It lacks much depth and the environmental message which was most certainly in the first reboot Godzilla film is completely lacking here. They give some lip service to balance and interconnectivity but nothing like what they did in the first one.

Remember the environmentally healing radiation? That doesn’t even seem to be a thing anymore. I would think after the battle in Rome that’s featured in the opener the ancient city would be much more lush than what they show, but not at all. It was an important element but missing here.

As sophisticated films go Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is not one. As junk food this is most certainly very pleasing junk food. It’s exciting and just cool to watch. If you want something big and dumb then check it out!