THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
There are monsters that come and go, but then there’s some that stay to evolve. Both Godzilla and Kong have been relevant for over half a century as of writing this, it seems like no one could tired of their presence. It’s proven to be the case when their crossover franchise by Legendary, the Monsterverse, creates a new lore that makes us want more. In Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, we get a lot more than what we bargained for, better or worse.
PLOT
The 2024 film takes place three years after the titular titans went from enemies to allies for the sake of defeating Mechagodzilla. Although the king that is Godzilla would continue maintaining order on the surface, resting in Rome’s colosseum when not fighting rogue monsters, Kong has established new territory in the subterranean dimension Hollow Earth. The great ape would only come to the surface for medical attention, which has been proven to be useful when Titan exclusive veterinarian Trapper cure a toothache by replacing a broken tooth with a metal one. The agency Monarch who studies creatures like them have set up an observation post ever since discovering the said dimension. Around the time the outpost discovers an unidentified signal, the young Jia, who is the last of Skull Island’s iwi tribe and was adopted by Ilene Andrews, has visions which causes her adoptive mother to worry. So, she reaches out to conspiracy podcaster Bernie Hayes about the signals which he believes they’re coincided with past Titan events. Godzilla would sense the signal as well, causing him to power up by absorbing radiation from a nuclear plant in France and defeating another Titan known as Tiamat in the Arctic. When Monarch tracks down his actions, they suspect him to prepare for a bigger threat. At Hollow Earth, Kong encounters a sinkhole that leads to him meeting more of his kind. He first meets a juvenile credited as Suko and after a confrontation with other giant gorillas, Suko takes him to the tribe’s lair. At the same time, Ilene & Jia take Trapper & Bernie with them to Hollow Earth to track down the signal. They do find the Monarch outpost destroyed, but then find a surviving Iwi tribe whose temple have been behind an organic bio-luminescent camouflaged barrier. Jia finds her comfortable with the tribe as the dead child can communicate with them via telepathy. When exploring the ruins, Ilene understands the signal was the tribe’s distress call. Further observing the temple, the group sees hieroglyphics that display the past and possible future: Godzilla’s race was once at war with great apes led by one known as the Skar King. He tried to conquer the surface, but the Titan king prevented that by pushing the opposing tribe into Hollow Earth. They even explain Jia is the key to a prophecy that brings back the Titan queen Mothra, who was previously slain by Ghidorah. With Kong finding his way into the other dimension, the Iwi knew it was a matter of time to try again being a conqueror. Kong does meet the opposing ape who is in fact Suko’s tyrannical leader, but has control over an ice powered Titan named Shimo with a crystal. Shimo would use its ice breath on Kong, causing him to have a frostbite on his right arm. With the assist of Suko, he is able to retreat and reunite with Jia. Seeing the severity of the injury, Trapper quips with a prototype exoskeleton glove that heals his wounds. With the Skar King planning to take advantage of escaping Hollow Earth to rule the surface, Kong goes to Cairo to call out Godzilla, intending to convince him to assist him against the true threat. In his failed attempt to communicate, the king of the monsters attacks him, due to mistaking him to want a rematch, until Jia arrives with the reawakened Mothra who convinces him what has to be done. The titans join forces upon returning to Hollow Earth by taking on the other great apes until the Skar King & Shimo take the portal and that takes them to Rio de Janeiro. Godzilla & Kong follow to prevent another ice age and succeed when Suko interferes by destroying the crystal that controls Shimo. Now free, Shimo freezes the Skar King and Kong shatters him. With the world saved, Godzilla returns resting at the colosseum. Ilene would give Jia her blessing to stay with the Iwi should she want to, but she assures her she’d rather stay with her mother that she became to her. The film ends with Kong returning to Hollow Earth alongside Suko & Shimo, taking responsibility as the ape tribe’s new leader.
THOUGHTS
I still love a good old monster mash no matter how cheesy one would deem them because I'm aware they're guaranteed to be fun in one shape or form. So this film was no exception in being such because Adam Wingard goes for that while also getting more experimental than any Hollywood filmmaker that makes monster flicks. It truly felt like the Titans had more screen time than the human characters as the story gives a stronger focus on the fictional creatures that make the moviegoing experience mesmerizing. Of course it generally works out with the VFX department bringing them to life as well as the unique landscape that is Hollow Earth. The details on Kong are surreal to the point where his beard is more noticeable than before, noticing he's getting older like any other animal. And Godzilla going from blue to purple due to absorbing Tiamat's radiation is a color scheme I dig very much. Both are still entertaining figures for maintaining their motives that are simple to them but become big for making the impossible possible. Godzilla is a peacekeeper no matter how much of a mess he makes but because he and Kong don't speak the same language, he prefers to go in alone. Kong still differs significantly because he wants connection with others and finally gains it when finding more great apes like him. He's patient enough to deal with Suko because he knows how it feels to be alone. The young ape was pretty opportunistic which helped him big time as he didn't hesitate destroying the crystal. He acted so cunning towards Kong originally because his actions are out of fear when having a cruel leader watching over him. Thankfully, he paved the way to have his own free will again and gained a better leader out of Kong. Even seeing Mothra come back was a big win because she's the only one to moderate between both rivaled titans. For the new monsters, it was a big change of scenery with the original ones made for this particular film. Shimo is definitely a heavy hitter with that ice breath, but is more of a benevolent creature when not being controlled. The Skar King stands out from the franchise's past villains because he's straight up the most sadistic one due to the joy he has when abusing others. He smiles whenever he bent Shimo to his will when having the crystal on him, so you know Godzilla had good reason to trap him when he did. Luckily, the Titan team-up lead to a long overdue overthrow of a dictator who didn't deserve the power in the first place. Having said all the interesting things about theses characters, the stronger focus on them almost diminishes the use of the humans who do most of the driving for the lot like before. For example I don't hate Dan Stevens as Trapper since this character enjoys tending to Titans in need for exclusive line of work, but I just feel he is forcefully filling the void for the characters not coming back like Nathan Lind & Madison Russell. I do give credit that he dresses like Ace Ventura with a Hawaiian shirt to rub it in that he loves animals. Rebecca Hall & Kaylee Hottie have great chemistry as Ilene & Jia respectively, but their relationship is so sidelined to the point the latter is more of a McGuffin, which doesn't feel right when the latter is the only human to have a genuine friendship with Kong. The same thing can be said with Rachel House as Hampton who overexposits like crazy what goes on with Godzilla just for audiences that don’t pay attention, which is pointless because that’s like calling the audience incapable of remembering when we can. I do respect Brian Tyree Henry returning as Bernie to maintain the crusader vibe he's all about since he is all about spreading the truth when first meeting him in the last movie. I just don't like how he isn't an official Monarch agent for what he knows. If he was sure Godzilla was getting provoked by something no one else would notice, that should be an instant hire. Because of thoughts like this, the pacing can feel a bit off where you're gonna notice a lot of issues you can't get out of your head. Like why does the Skar King hide in the subterranean realm if he was Hollow Earth's only dominant titan before Kong's arrival? It is one thing to keep Shimo at bay, but he doesn't need to stay in one place to prove the power he wields. And if he never knew of Kong before, he never needed to take so long to come up. Also, how did he know how to control Shimo the way we see him do it? If Ilene was able to exposit Skar King is the real threat, there totally could’ve been time to understand how he figured it out. And who the hell would want to have titan action figures? There's two of them in Bernie's room and it's weird because if I was in this fictional universe, I wouldn't support monsters that wreck havoc and don't bat an eye. Even though Godzilla & Kong mean well, it's kind of a stretch to show support. I then wonder how come Ilene doesn't take Jia to an exclusive school for deaf children? If she's having a hard time fitting in one that looks public like the Monarch Base Academy, she should go to one where people understand she's different. Not doing that felt more illogical than Jia not speaking to Ilene telepathically when meeting the other Iwis. It’s even a big design flaw for Monarch to detect uncharted areas miles away but not a smaller base detecting the Skar King coming its way because the sentence speaks for itself. Also, it's gotta be weird for a military escort like Mikael (Alex Ferns) to not know Titan names like the vertacines. If you're escorting agents on a regular, you gotta know what you're running into. Because of him being uncultured, I did not care at all when that tree ate him. And is the new Mothra originate from the same egg we saw in the credits for King of the Monsters? If it's not, then that's a real weird retcon. You know I hate continuity errors, so I was very baffled when one Iwi is up close in Bernie’s face on cue for him to say he’s uncomfortable on one shot only for him to be already three steps back by the next one before we can see him take them. Lastly, what was the plan if Kong didn't have the exo gauntlet? I mean I know Mothra would have Godzilla's back but since she barely had a chance against Rodan & Ghidorah last time, I wonder what Kong could've done to have the same chances they had here with something that should’ve been locked away in the surface rather than left in Hollow Earth. That bothered me more than the fact she didn’t go to the portal to Rio like Suko did. Ignore these problems, then you'll still enjoy this film as much as I have. In short, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is another entertaining monster flick for continuing to let loose on the concept. If this is your kinda jam, check this out. But if you want a more serious monster flick, go see Godzilla Minus One.
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