Review: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Last year we got the emotional heft and massive action of the Oscar winning Godzilla Minus One but on the other end of the spectrum is the recently released Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which delivers ridiculous and dumb but fun monster action as the latest chapter in the Monsterverse.
Picking up three years after Godzilla vs Kong, Kong is living in the Hollow Earth, monitored by Monarch and Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall). Pushing farther and farther into the Hollow Earth looking for any surviving apes, Kong unwittingly unleashes the vicious Skar King, an evil oranguatangesque Titan who rules over a tribe of apes with an iron fist and is obsessed with escaping the Hollow Earth and taking over the surface world. On the surface, Godzilla senses that something is amiss and begins a process of powering himself up to an even higher level, which includes absorbing power from nuclear plants. Ilene, along with her adopted daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle), podcasting Titan conspiracy theorist Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry) and Titan veterinarian Trapper (Dan Stevens) head into the Hollow Earth when they discover some sort of distress signal is coming from the subterrean realm. The plot takes a bit to get going, especially in the beginning when it’s focusing on the human characters. Once the Skar King is introduced and the focus shifts almost entirely to Kong, the movie really picks up steam and becomes ridiculous and fun. Much like Godzilla vs Kong, Kong is by far the most compelling and interesting character and his journey carries the movie as he discovers he’s not alone and bonds with a young ape Titan named Suko. Godzilla is a bit sidelined but has some cool moments and there’s some new and returning Titans that add to the monster mash action. The Skar King is one of the best villains in the Monsterverse, even topping Ghidorah, and he’s full of personality and menace. Even without dialogue, his gestures and mannerisms sell his sadistic, swaggering attitude and he’s more than an equal match to Kong and Godzilla. The fact that he’s leaner and more agile also makes for a more interesting opponent against the raw muscle of Kong and Godzilla. Of the humans, Dan Stevens is just an utter delight, seemingly absolutely delighted to be there and making everything around him better in every scene. The human plot has barely enought structure to make it through the entire run time but the monster plot is more than strong enough to balance it out.
Adam Wingard proved he could come up with some fun and exciting monster fights in Godzilla vs Kong and there are plenty of fun fights in Godzilla x Kong as well, including one that plays with gravity in a fun, cool way. As mentioned, the lankiness of the Skar King brings an interesting new dynamic to his fights with Kong and Godzilla and there’s a new ice based Titan that throws an interesting wrench into things too. The movie also leans even harder into the 80s/synthwave/neon aesthestic that we saw mostly in the Hong Kong finale of Godzilla vs Kong but it’s all over Godzilla x Kong, suppliminented by a fantastic, sythy score by Junkie XL and Antonio Di Iorio.
If you’re going in to Godzilla x Kong expecting the emotional heft of Godzilla Minus One, you are going to be sorely disappointed but, if you go in looking for a big, dumb, fun monster mash, than Godzilla x Kong more than delivers. I would definitely rank it above Godzilla: King of the Monsters and probably right above Godzilla vs Kong. Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island are still, to me, the strongest entries in the Monsterverse but Godzilla x Kong is a total blast and definitely worth seeing on the big screen for Monsterverse, or giant monster in general, fans.