The Monsterverse, perhaps against all odds, continues to chug along. If all the audience wants is giant monsters punching each other, then this series does it’s job. And, quite frankly, that usually works for me. In fact, a number of these movies have been quite fun for me. But others haven’t, and why there needs to be a follow-up to Godzilla vs Kong I couldn’t say. I am especially thinking that way given how much I adored Godzilla Minus One. That may be the first time I both enjoyed a Godzilla movie and legitimately cared about the human characters. The American-made Monsterverse hasn’t quite gotten that far yet, though Kong: Skull Island came really, really close.
Anyway, the nice thing about Spring Break is I can get to a Thursday night screening of the new Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire without having to worry about going to work the next day.
Kong’s life in Hollow Earth is going decently enough, ruling over his territory using a combination of skill and smarts. However, the big guy is a bit lonely. The Great Apes are social creatures, and Kong, as far as he knows, is the last of his kind. He soon learns he isn’t, and this may be of use to Monarch, the organization that monitors Titan activity worldwide, but something else destroyed their monitoring station. Back on the surface, the last survivor of the Skull Island natives, Jia (Kaylee Hottle), is getting these flashes that concern her adopted mother, Monarch researcher Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall). Since Kong popped up on the surface to get a bad tooth fixed, she’ll follow him back to Hollow Earth with Jia, Titan-podcast expert Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry), and freewheeling Titan veterinarian Trapper (Dan Stevens). And while all this is going on, Godzilla is wandering the earth, up to, well, something.
It turns out that not only is Kong not the last of his kind, but the others are brutally ruled by an evil red-colored ape called the Skar King. Skar King keeps the other apes in line with an iron fist and a special weapon of his own, and it turns out that these apes have a history with Godzilla and a hatred for the human race. As promised by the trailers, Kong will need to team up with Godzilla to stop Skar King and prevent the destruction of the surface world. Will that be enough, and how much can we expect to have giant monsters fighting each other?
Let’s get some obvious things out of the way first: the human characters here are unlikely to really do much to make you care about them, and Godzilla actually isn’t in this one that much. For the first, Tyree Henry and Stevens seem to be having fun with the (admittedly goofy) material they’ve been given, but Hall is just an exposition machine when she isn’t a concerned mother, and Hottle is not even that. As for Godzilla, to be clear, this is really more of a Kong movie with Godzilla only popping up once in a while to remind you his name is in the title until the two finally meet up again. There are a number of giant monsters fights, but the big finale seems like a “throw everything in a blender” thing, and I am actually wondering why Godzilla had to be in this one at all. This movie might have worked out just fine if it was just a movie about Kong, particularly since the movie had a feel to it like there was too much in it. Taking out Godzilla and one or two of the plot elements related to him alone might have made for a better movie.
That said, Kong does work as a character here. Given the giant ape doesn’t talk or get subtitles when he isn’t using sign language with Jia, the movie manages to give Kong something of a personality using just his body language and interaction with other apes, particularly a juvenile one referred to as “mini-Kong”. I don’t expect anything like Godzilla Minus One with a Monsterverse movie, so basically, I want a good popcorn flick. That said, this one has a very deliberate pace. Skar King doesn’t even appear until about halfway through the movie, and as I said above, Godzilla isn’t even in this one very much. As something of a character study for a giant ape, Godzilla x Kong is decent enough. As a popcorn flick, it has too much happening, and the final act fight felt too crowded. It’s not what I would call a bad movie, and Kaiju movie fans will probably enjoy this one, but it’s also not something I expect to watch again any time soon if ever.
Grade: C+
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