Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, is the fifth movie in Legendary’s “Monsterverse” film series (Which also includes the “Monarch” TV series on Apple). Adam Wingard who helmed the previous “Godzilla Vs Kong” movie returns to the directors chair. Terry Rossio returns to write the film and is joined by Simon Barrett. This movie also sees the return of a few of the human characters (And their actors) from last entry. Specifically Rebecca Hall as Ilene Andrews, Kaylee Hottle as Jia and Brian Tyree Henry as Bernie Hayes.
The Fun End Of The Spectrum
This is quite a change from the last Godzilla movie to hit our screens, the phenomenal “Godzilla Minus One”, but that doesn’t mean it will be bad. This series provides a (Somewhat) heroic Godzilla who stands as the Earth’s guardian against other monster threats (Though still destroys the occasional building). Kong meanwhile now lives in the “Hollow Earth”, where the Monsters come from. This is an arrangement that seems to suit both titans. At least until a new threat emerges. This is very much on the popcorn/fun end of the monster movie spectrum.
That threat is discovered by Kong as he travels the Hollow Earth and comes across beings much like himself, including a child. Things take a twist though when they attack him. What he discovers is that these beings are ruled over by a malevolent ape who has harnessed the powers of a mighty titan to destroy his enemies and make his people cower before him in fear. His intention appears to be to come to the surface and bring forth a new ice age. But it will take more than just Kong to stop, perhaps more than Kong and Godzilla.
Learning From The Past
The big mistake of the previous Godzilla Vs Kong movie was in including two separate groups of humans, one for each titan. More often than not, the humans just get in the way of these kinds of stories, so it’s best not to overuse them. The exception being Godzilla Minus One, but that was an exceptional movie. In Godzilla Vs Kong, “Team Zilla” really felt like they didn’t need to be there and the film dragged when they were on screen. Here they reduce the team down to one Kong focused team and that helps with both pacing and consistency. Though that’s not to say they were a highlight, but they don’t get in the way. I’ll speak about them a bit later.
The real star of the movie though is King Kong. Godzilla is still the king of the Monsters and there is no real disputing that in the movie, but Kong is a far more versatile character capable of expressing emotion (To some degree) and able to provide a greater variety of action scenes. Focusing more on Kong is beneficial to both Monsters as Godzilla needs to maintain some mystery while Kong benefits from being a little humanized. The makers of the movie clearly understood this and bringing in other Ape beings (Especially the child Ape) gave Kong an emotional journey. There is also a welcome return of another heroic titan (No spoiler, but you can probably guess).
The Trouble With Humans
Pet peeve time! One thing I detest in movies is when a macho character tells everyone to be careful of the dangers and is instantly killed. This has been so overused that it is a cliché now and really needs to stop. It’s my second biggest pet peeve after the “Exposition Guy” (A character whose only purpose in a film is to give exposition). Anyway, we have a very minor character that seems to have just been there for that one scene. It’s seconds of the film and not a deal breaker, but because it doesn’t impact anything that makes the inclusion even worse. Stop doing this Hollywood!
My only other complaint with the movie would be that outside the main Mother/Daughter characters the remaining pair of humans are goofy and one dimensional. They are basically along for the ride and don’t have much in the way of agency. Honestly for a film like this though it’s not a big problem. Trying to give them more depth would have meant a longer run time or taking attention away from Kong and those would be larger mistakes. Bernie though has been in two of these movies now and felt pointless in both. Brian Tyree Henry is capable of more (See “Bullet Train” for example), but only if he is given something to work with.
Conclusion
Godzilla X Kong: A New Empire, provides a good pace (I didn’t really notice the run time) and solid action with a bit of humour along the way. It’s nothing ground breaking and it won’t bring you to tears. It’s simple, somewhat shallow but definitely entertaining. It is a rare case of a franchise learning from previous missteps and simply giving the audience what they want (In this case giant monsters beating each other up). I’ve got to give this a strong 6/10 (Almost a 6.5) and recommend it as a fun popcorn flick.
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