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Film: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Year: 2024
Director: Adam Wingard
Writers: Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett and Jeremy Slater
Starring: Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry and Dan Stevens
Review:
This was a movie that I heard was coming out but wasn’t overly excited for. I’m not sure why since these are fun. I look at them like comic book movies. My guess is that Godzilla Minus One blew me away that these pale in comparison now. Regardless, I saw this the opening Thursday at the Gateway Film Center. I had a list of movies to see for the weekend and this one worked best that day.
Synopsis: two ancient titans, Godzilla and Kong, clash in an epic battle as humans unravel their intertwined origins and connection to Skull Island’s mysteries.
We start this off seeing King Kong as he now lives in the Hollow Earth area under the surface. He roams and hunts, killing other things for food. The giant gorilla is searching for others like him but hasn’t found anything. At the end of this opening sequence, there’s an earthquake that reveals there’s something underneath. We also see a Monarch base nearby that is picking up something as well. It looks like an uncharted area that is subterranean.
Up above, Godzilla is still roaming the world and defeating titans that are getting out of their territory. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) is the head of Kong operations for Monarch. They’re getting a signal that they cannot explain. She notices that her daughter, Jia (Kaylee Hottle), is drawing the signal. She tells Ilene that it feels like someone is calling out to her psychically. This signal causes her to reach out to Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry). He’s a conspiracy theorist blogger and podcaster who is right about things. He thinks outside of the box so she needs his help.
Godzilla also seems to be affected by this signal. We see him attack a power plant in France, drawing its power. He then sets his sights on attacking Tiamat, another titan who absorbs solar energy. King Kong also comes up to the surface. He has an infected tooth so Monarch reaches out to Trapper (Dan Stevens) for help. He’s a titan veterinarian. They replace the tooth with a metal one. This must be done fast before Godzilla comes after him for the invasion of his territory.
This signal needs to be figured out before it is too late. Ilene leads a team of Trapper, Mikael (Alex Ferns), Bernie and Jia to figure it out. They find that the Monarch base in Hollow Earth is destroyed. They discover a temple that looks to be made by humans. This also reveals a legend that involves King Kong, Godzilla and other titans. One of which is known as the Skar King and the other is Shiva. King Kong isn’t strong enough to defeat this threat alone, he’ll need help. Monarch must convince Godzilla and other titans to prevent the destruction of the planet as we know it.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that the best part of these movies for me, outside of the action and battle sequences, is the lore they continue to build on. They will take entities from religion and incorporate them into being titans. Here that includes Tiamat and Shiva. Or they’ll take conspiracy theories like Hollow Earth and use that as well. This is also good here is that they borrow from earlier kaiju movies for story elements. I’m a fan there as well. I wanted to give this information to delve deeper into them.
Where I’ll then go would be with the new titans here. I’d say that these are good to build on what the previous movie set up. We know coming in that Hollow Earth is a thing for this world. King Kong knows that his species had called this world home, but he can’t find them. He’s continuing that search. This leads him to go deeper into the subterranean area. That’s where more legends are explored. Kong’s race are defenders of humanity. Godzilla is the defender of Earth. What is interesting is that we learnt about Skar King, which was good. It also introduces Shiva, which I know is from Hinduism. This is more closely to the Final Fantasy games which is the god of ice. This deity here is supposed to be a rival of Godzilla or at least that’s how they present this. There are more elements here of the tribe that lived on Skull Island. Also, Tiamat is a Mesopotamian goddess and appears in Final Fantasy games, normally as a villain.
I want to shift to this last idea here. This plays with the idea that Kong is looking for others like him. He has no place. The same can be said for Jia. She is struggling in school. Ilene is determined to make her feel welcome or find something that does. This does bring heart to the movie that I appreciated. The idea is explored even more as we discover other giant apes and Jia’s missing tribe.
All that is left for the story is that I noticed there’s less commentary here about the environment. I’m fine with that. They went a bit heavy with this idea in the last couple movies. This is focused more on Hollow Earth. This leans to saving the world from destruction as well. I’d also say that we’re seeing that there’s a vet to help titans, Trapper. Also, they’re still dealing with the government wanting to take over the program. That’s more of a passing idea. Something that stressed me out though was seeing the titans destroy things like the Colosseum or the great pyramids of Giza. I’ve seen the former and know how breathtaking it is, so there’s that realist part of me that got tense.
Let’s then go over to what this is all about, filmmaking. What I mean here is the CGI and effects. These movies are working with high budgets so the effects are on point. I’ll be honest, they look great, especially on the big screen. These movies are made for it. They’re CGI-fest like the comic book movies. I still have fun with the fight sequences. They do wild things there. I love seeing Godzilla wreck other monsters and buildings. Cinematography is good with how they frame things and bring places that don’t exist to life. That was good. The soundtrack also didn’t seem to feature the iconic Godzilla theme which is an issue for me. Other than that, the rest of the music worked and the sound design to bring these creatures to life.
All that is left then is acting. Hall is fine here. She’s a good actress, but her performance isn’t a focus. I like her as this scientist wanting to help Kong and in turn, the world. Henry adds comedy. He’s also smart about things that people don’t believe in. I liked the addition of Stevens. He’s a surfer guy who is just having a good time. He’s also smart in his field. Hottle was solid in her role. She is featured prominently again and that worked for what they did there. Ferns, Fala Chen and the rest of the cast rounded this out for what was needed. Again, the kaijus are the focus here. No one is bad though, which is all I ask.
In conclusion, this is a fun popcorn movie. I include these in horror since I just lump in kaiju film. This isn’t traditional horror outside of that. What I’ll say is that I love building more on the mythology of these monsters. Seeing them do battle is the draw. Incorporating more titans is great. This is well made. They have a big budget so the CGI looks good. The framing and cinematography to capture all this is good. Won’t be for everyone, but if you want something to shut off your brain and roll with, this is for you.
My Rating: 7 out of 10