GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE:
A DECENT SECOND CLASH OF THE TITANS!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: *** out of 4
WARNER BROS. PICTURES
Godzilla and Kong are back in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
The King of the Monsters and the King of Apes have returned to cause more destruction in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the latest installment of Legendary’s MonsterVerse which turns 10 years old this year since the second American reboot of Godzilla came out in 2014, how time flies? Anyway, this is obviously a sequel to 2021’s Godzilla VS Kong which saw these new versions of the iconic monsters finally clash it out after so much buildup over the previous films.
Godzilla VS Kong wasn’t anything great, just simple and mindless popcorn entertainment done very well. Now three years later and one year after the incredibly successful Japanese film, Godzilla Minus One we have a follow-up with a title that totally doesn’t sound like a monster romance movie.
Despite enjoying the first film and seeing trailers for the sequel multiple times in theaters, this sort of flew under my radar as it was coming out. It might have had something to do with Dune: Part Two being released during the same month which definitely had a much higher priority for me.
Still, I wanted to see the new MonsterVerse film and give my thoughts on it so that’s what I’m going to do. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a perfectly serviceable follow-up to a pretty good monster mashup.
Set after the events of the first movie, the film follows Kong who is now the protector of the Hollow Earth realm while Godzilla deals with monster disasters on normal Earth. However, a new threat comes in the form of a much more aggressive and powerful ape known as the Skar King and a giant lizard with ice breath that plan to escape Hollow Earth and freeze the human world (Yep, another movie over the past couple weeks involving a monster with ice powers except this one is way better) which forces Kong and Godzilla to team up and destroy their new Kaiju foes before the world is covered in a new ice age.
The film stars Rebecca Hall (The Prestige, The Town, Iron Man 3) reprising her role from Godzilla VS Kong as Dr. Ilene Andrews, Brian Tyree Henry (If Beale Street Could Talk, Spider-Verse, Bullet Train) reprising his role as Bernie Hayes, Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey, Beauty and the Beast (2017), The Boy and the Heron) as Trapper, Kaylee Hottle reprising her role as Ilene’s adopted daughter Jia, Alex Ferns (EastEnders, Joyeux Noël, The Batman) as Mikael, Fala Chen (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) as Iwi Queen, and Rachel House (Whale Rider, Jojo Rabbit, Soul) as Hampton.
Overall, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire probably won’t go down as one of the all-time greatest monster slobberknockers, but fans of these characters and the MonsterVerse will likely be entertained by it regardless of its flaws. Like its predecessor, it doesn’t really aim to challenge the audience or take them anywhere new and instead just gives them exactly what they want to see, Godzilla and Kong fighting evil monsters and causing destruction in the process, crowd-pleasing blockbuster entertainment done well for the most part.
A far cry from the action in Godzilla Minus One or Peter Jackson’s King Kong, the monster fight sequences are a lot of fun and take advantage of the large screen (Definitely worth seeking out in IMAX if you can). From Godzilla battling a giant spider in Rome to a Thunderdome-style duel between Kong and the Skar King, Godzilla and Kong fighting each other on the pyramids of Egypt (It’s like the climax of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen if it was done correctly), and a glorious showdown with Godzilla and Kong going up against the Skar King and the ice Kaiju, all good stuff.
I found myself getting invested in the plot involving Kong forming a bond with a juvenile ape from the newly-discovered tribe. Even though there’s no dialogue, you feel the connection between them and it’s often quite heartfelt, a much better Son of Kong than the actual Son of Kong.
However, while the monster plots are engaging, the human subplots stop the film in its tracks and feel like a step backwards from what Godzilla Minus One achieved. Godzilla Minus One proved that it is possible to have a Godzillamovie with compelling human characters and strong emotional drama with it revolving around people surviving Godzilla’s mayhem during the aftermath of a war, here it’s just the same stock human characters from all the other MonsterVerse movies.
To me, the only MonsterVerse movie that actually had decent human characters was Kong: Skull Island and I’m not sure if it’s just because it consisted of a bunch of A-list actors, but everyone’s personalities were unique and full of charisma in that movie. In this movie, despite good actors portraying the humans, they seem to exist only to provide exposition and explore temples and tombs in Hollow Earth.
I also don’t think the movie is paced very well compared to the first film with a lot of focus being on Kong and him discovering the new ape tribe. Even though I was invested in that part of the story, it honestly felt like I was watching Kong: Skull Island 2 that sometimes involved Godzilla to the point where it will occasionally cut to Monarch operatives monitoring what Godzilla is doing before going back to either the Kong plot or the humans.
I’m not saying the first Godzilla VS Kong was a game-changer in storytelling, but it knew how to give both characters plenty of screen-time. Here, it’s a bit of a mess.
Still, despite its flaws I found myself having a good enough time with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. If you’ve seen the ads for it and thinks it looks like fun, you’ll probably enjoy it, nothing spectacular but for the MonsterVerse I guess it doesn’t need to be.
Oh, and Mothra’s in this too…can’t forget that!
No comments:
Post a Comment