By Santiago Brion | April 8, 2024
Photo Credit: OpenClipart
“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is the new entry in Warner Bros./Legendary’s MonsterVerse franchise, and the sequel to Godzilla vs. Kong. Two years after the events of Godzilla vs. Kong, the two iconic Kaiju titans must team up to face a colossal threat, Scar King, as Hollow Earth, a subterranean realm below the earth, hangs in the balance.
While the movie lacks spectacle and scale, it does have some great Kaiju fights and the appearance of Mothra, a fan favorite monster moth. Unlike Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla movie which possesses a sense of scale and destruction, “Godzilla x Kong” barely shows the impact of the titans’ destruction of the cities they appear in.
The big flaw of the MonsterVerse is the plots surrounding humans in the movies. While “Kong: Skull Island” has a good human involved story with the expedition team trying to survive the titular island, the plots surrounding humans in those movies sole purpose is to move the plot forward. The human side plot of “Godzilla x Kong” is this: Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens and Brian Tyree Henry go down to Hollow Earth to research an energy spike and find out what’s going on.
If you’re looking to turn your brain off, “Godzilla x Kong” has that roller coaster ride feel with its great effects and kaiju action. It has fun moments like when Kong uses his mini companion as a weapon to fight other giant apes and Godzilla and Kong meeting at the pyramids and having a WWE fight until Mothra intervenes. The first hour of the movie is spent more on the human characters being sentient meatbags speaking convoluted expository nonsense, with Godzilla and Kong not meeting until an hour in and the movie sacrifices telling a good story as a result.
Adam Wingard had no intention to make a serious monster movie but wanted to make a popcorn flick that catered to audiences to be distracted for two hours.
I give “Godzilla x Kong” a 6 out of 10. You can see it at Regal Crossgates and Regal Colonie Center.
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