Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

​“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” stars Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, and Fala Chen. Released on March 29, 2024, the film has Godzilla teaming up with Kong to battle a monstrous threat.

The film was directed by Adam Wingard, who also directed films such as “Home Sick”, “You’re Next”, “The Guest”, and “Godzilla vs. Kong”. It is the fifth film in the MonsterVerse. It’s still hard for us to believe that a franchise involving building-sized monsters battling each other would last this long, let alone a decade. There have been other movies with similar concepts, including one featuring kaiju monsters and giant human-controlled robots. However, none of them could compete against the surprising amount of success from the MonsterVerse, primarily due to the resurgence of two of America’s iconic movie monsters: Godzilla and King Kong. With the booming success of their solo movies, the two Titans faced each other for supremacy in “Godzilla vs. Kong”, which proved to be a smashing hit critically and financially despite debuting in theaters and on HBO Max during the pandemic. The fact that it was a must-see on the big screen even helped the monster-sized universe remain relevant. So now we have the latest installment that sees the two popular Titans joining forces to protect their home, whether they like it or not. Does it serve as another hit as massive as a Titan, or is it time for the franchise to go extinct? Let’s find out.

Set after the events of “Godzilla vs. Kong”, the story focuses on Kong and his human companions: Dr. Ilene Andrews (Hall), podcaster Bernie Hayes (Henry), Titan veterinarian Trapper (Stevens), and Jia (Hottle). Together, they delve deep into Hollow Earth, a massive world underneath Earth consisting of other hidden Titans. Kong eventually discovers more of his species hiding in the far reaches of Hollow Earth. However, the giant apes are ruled by a tyrannical leader called the Skar King, who seeks dominance over the surface world, and a mighty frost Titan known as Shimo. Knowing that Kong couldn’t stop the two threats alone, Dr. Andrews and the others decide to seek Godzilla for help, which is easier said than done. Despite not seeing eye-to-eye, Kong and Godzilla must put aside their differences and make their stand against the two villainous Titans. 

The first movie I watched Godzilla and Kong share the screen was 2021’s “Godzilla vs. Kong”. However, I wound up watching it on HBO Max when it was first released during the pandemic because I wanted to keep myself safe from the virus. It’s far from a masterpiece in terms of its thin human characters and story, but I admired it for living up to its concept of two iconic Titans battling the stuffing out of each other. It was a consistently fun monster mash that benefited from its visual effects and scope-heavy action sequences. More importantly, it showed that Adam Wingard, the man behind some solid low-budget thrillers, can surprisingly carry a blockbuster with a Titan-sized budget. So, it’s no surprise that I was looking forward to its follow-up, which promised more monster mayhem and humans we don’t give an ape’s butt about. Of course, we shouldn’t expect anything more from this movie since…well, it has a giant monkey fighting alongside a massive, pink-scaled lizard. However, it did need to meet or exceed the expectations of being an entertaining action blockbuster to make it worth our time.

The thing to know about “The New Empire” is that it takes several elements from “Godzilla vs. Kong”, applies them to this film, and enhances them. One of them is the focus on the titular Titans. While the movie is called “Godzilla x Kong”, it’s more focused on Kong’s arc than Godzilla’s, who spends a few minutes of screen time wrecking stuff up in the surface world, a structure similar to its predecessor. The movie showcases more of Kong’s journey in Hollow Earth, which led him to confront his own species and challenge the Skar King for supremacy while forming a bond with a young juvenile ape named Suko. So, you can say there were plenty of big things for a bigger ape to handle in the film, not just Godzilla. As for the humans, they’re pretty much along for the monster-sized ride as usual while providing color commentary on what’s happening with the Titans. However, the movie did have moments where it attempted to make the humans as interesting as Kong, mainly the relationship between Andrews and her adoptive daughter Jia, the last survivor of the Iwi tribe. This bond served as the movie’s heart amid the destruction from the Titans' rampage, with Jia searching for a sense of belonging. Some of these moments struggled to reach the emotional heights they were going for due to its formulaic screenplay and execution. But the others were sweet and even tolerable enough to keep me distracted until the next monster mash.

When it comes to the MonsterVerse as a whole, it has a rough track record in providing captivating human stories amid the visual eye candy and mindless monster battles. The only projects that happened to deliver the best of both worlds were 2014’s “Godzilla” and the Apple TV+ series “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters”, mainly due to its grandeur scale, character arcs, and grim tone. With this film and “Godzilla vs. Kong”, both of which were directed by Adam Wingard, the franchise seems to be going for a more light-hearted and retro presentation to attract a wider audience, including kids. But, of course, this change does result in the franchise spending less time developing the human characters and scope and more on the Titans wrecking cities and each other willy-nilly. This is far from an issue as long as they provide enough good merits to warrant this change and excuse their flawed narratives. “Godzilla vs. Kong” managed to accomplish that while being a fun and visually astonishing monster-sized ride. After watching “The New Empire”, I can say it accomplished that, too. Like “Godzilla vs. Kong”, “Godzilla x Kong” offers a satisfying round of crowd-pleasing action and mindless Titan mayhem to rule over most of its shortcomings. Its screenplay and direction may have taken more shortcuts than it should in terms of its characters, and the pacing near the end felt as fast as traveling through a portal to Hollow Earth. But Adam Wingard’s vision continued to delight with its rocking soundtrack and enjoyable monster-sized battles suitable for the biggest screen.

Despite the humans being pawns of information dumping, the cast was acceptable for delivering humor and heart into the characters, even if some of their moments may not work well for others. The only actors I think were the best were Brian Tyree Henry and Dan Stevens as Bernie and Trapper, respectively. These two actors act as the movie’s comic relief amid the dramas with the monsters and human characters. While their straightforward personalities were middling at best, Henry and Stevens proved to have enough charm and humor to keep the human aspect close to being as engaging as Kong’s journey. Along with Hall and Henry, deaf actress Kaylee Hottle reprised her role from “Godzilla vs. Kong”. Her role as Jia in “The New Empire” remains a likable presence in the franchise in terms of its representation and her performance.  

Another element that I credit the film for is its visual effects. Admittedly, the visuals in “Godzilla x Kong" don’t rival what we got from “Godzilla Minus One”, but without comparing the two, the effects in this movie succeed on multiple occasions. In addition to the scope of the Titan fights, the visuals represented the beauty and dangers surrounding Hollow Earth and its retro-like lighting. They also provided some solid Titan designs, including the Skar King and a radiation-powered Godzilla with pink scales. I wouldn’t make fun of Godzilla’s scales if I were you. They may not match the earlier installments in the MonsterVerse regarding the cinematic scopes, but that doesn’t mean there’s not much to admire from the visual effects that powered the movie’s CGI-filled sequences.

Overall, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is another Titan-sized blockbuster that favors delightfully dumb popcorn entertainment in its monster spectacle over soulful storytelling. Regarding its by-the-numbers narrative, pacing, and human characters, the film is a small step backward from “Godzilla vs. Kong,” which may spell trouble for the MonsterVerse. However, it still contains enough fun and thrilling aspects to deliver another decently passable expansion of the monster-sized franchise, including its cast, visual effects, and entertaining fight sequences. More importantly, it also serves as a reminder that the two different Godzilla franchises, one from Toho and one from Legendary, can coexist to please their various audiences.  

I don’t mind a Godzilla movie full of spectacle and destruction as long as it’s enjoyable, but I also admire one that’s layered with interesting human characters and themes, mainly “Minus One”. These two parts of the Godzilla brand are different beasts regarding the directions they took, and I think they should be acknowledged for impressing both sides of the fanbase. It shows how welcoming a fanbase can become when they’re free to like different aspects of the same franchise without bullying each other on social media. Hopefully, this will inspire many other fanbases to stop being so toxic all the time. As for “The New Empire”, I will recommend this film to those who enjoyed “Godzilla vs. Kong” or want to have fun at the movies. However, if you’re more into monster movies with award-worthy storytelling and thematic depth like “Minus One”, this one won’t win you over.

B-