Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Starring Rebecca Hall, Bryan Tyree Henry, Dan Stephens, Kaylee Hottle
Directed by Adam Wingard
After their last epic fight, King Kong returns to Hollow Earth while Godzilla remains on the surface to serve as the protector of nature, stopping Kaiju threats and overall protecting humanity. Kong is searching for apes like himself because he's lonely, and stumbles upon an undiscovered area in Hollow Earth where apes are staging an uprising to the surface led by the evil Scar King who also imprisons other apes, including young Suko that Kong befriends.
Godzilla senses this is happening and prepares on the surface by absorbing radiation, while Monarch researcher Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), her adopted daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle) - the last of her Iwi tribe who shares a psychic connection with Kong and who has been having frightening visions - Ilene's ex-boyfriend and adventurer Trapper (Dan Stephens) and podcast host conspiracy theorist Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) travel to Hollow Earth to investigate a distress call. Realizing he can't stop the Scar King alone, Kong returns to the surface to bring Godzilla into the fight, allowing the two frenemies to come together again to save humanity and themselves.
One of the biggest criticisms of this MonsterVerse Cinematic Universe is that it relegates the Kaiju to the background, instead focusing on human drama and resulting in a more boring outing than what was expected. While that works to great effect in non-MonsterVerse film "Minus One," the MonsterVerse struggles with it due to generic, typical storylines that we've seen in countless films before. Fortunately, "The New Empire" relies more on the Kaiju than the humans, and the cast is slimmed down to just four main people who spend all their time together instead of separating into different subplots that further put them front and center. On the humanity side, the main story is Dr. Andrews dealing with her adopted daughter Jia, who's the last of her kind who can't fit into society and who has terrifying visions of an impeding doom. It's your typical nuclear family dynamic, but this story actually could've been elevated some when you take into account another story taking place.
That story is the relationship between Kong and young Suko, a mini-Kong that leads Kong to the Scar King's lair. At first the two are at odds, but Kong serves as a father figure to Suko that he never had since he was raised in the Scar King's kingdom, and learns compassion and love from the titular ape. You can see the parallels between these two stories that happen organically, but aren't really delved deep enough to care particularly one way or another.
The other story is why there's a distress call coming from Hollow Earth, resulting in humanity discovering the Scar King and his plan to return to the surface - something Kong and Godzilla already know about. Godzilla himself is really relegated to supporting role here as he travels the world battling other Kaiju and gaining radiation to prepare for the battle, and serves as the film's major epic disaster sequences as he lays waste to Rome, France and other places without malice. It's interesting to me that Godzilla is considered a hero to the people when he essentially kills millions of people just by walking, like ants getting trampled by a drunk guy sidestepping on the street. Anyway, Kong gets his butt handed to him so he must get Godzilla's help, resulting in a fight between the two before cooler heads prevail and they travel to Hollow Earth to bring the beatdown to the Scar King and his minions.
Unlike other MonsterVerse films, the Kaiju take center stage this time around, especially Kong, and through motion capture we get a whole new appreciation for the ape. He is, at his core, a being that longs for family, and seeing him traverse Hollow Earth alone is actually a bit heartbreaking. He is highly intelligent as he sets up traps for his prey, and he showcases emotions shown in his eyes and mannerisms since, you know, he can't talk. He's the most human here than he's ever been. Godzilla, on the other hand, is as animal as you can get - instinctively gaining radiation for something he knows is coming but being more a force of nature than a tactician. When these two come together, however, it's a battle for the ages. The effects and CGI are impeccable, moving at breakneck pace that dazzles the big screen, and honestly - we don't come to these movies for epic character development, we just want to see monsters fight. And fight they do! It's the most rewarding of the MonsterVerse films in this regard, foregoing a cohesive storyline but again, you don't really mind.
Reuniting the titans for a team-up once again, "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" dazzles with impressive CGI fights and set designs while offering the most screentime for these beloved Kaiju characters in a long while.
The Score: A
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