Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

            When going to the movies to see the action on the big screen, nothing’s bigger than these two literal titans. Godzilla and Kong are a couple of the biggest on-screen characters in cinema history, so it was only natural to spend the extra few bucks to see them on the IMAX screen. Despite the gentlemen sitting in my seats because someone else was sitting in their seats, it was a fun movie-going experience. But before you get mad and start smashing buildings for being spoiled, here is your official Kong-sized warning about there being spoilers ahead. If you would rather wait until you’ve seen the movie, then why not check out some other reviews here first, then come back?

            For everyone else, welcome to the fun part where I discuss the movie and all its details. Let’s start at the beginning with Adam Wingard who directed the movie. He also directed Godzilla Vs. Kong three years ago, so he’s familiar with these characters and the story and it shows. Thankfully I just re-watched that one to get myself ready for this one because I had forgotten about some of the Hollow Earth plot points. The best way to describe this movie is to imagine putting Guardians of the Galaxy, Congo, and Lord of the Rings in a blender, the mixture you come out with is this. “The New Empire” picks up sometime after the previous film and is currently the fifth movie in the MonsterVerse franchise (along with Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla: King of Monsters, and Vs.)… you know it may be about time for a MonsterVerse list soon.

            Kong is now living in Hollow Earth full time, along with a team of researchers who monitor him at all times. Including series returnees Dr. Andrews (Rebecca Hall) and her adopted daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle). Although Jia is in school now and does not feel like she belongs. As Kong is hunting and out searching for a family of his own, Godzilla is up on the surface keeping the world safe from the other titans that show up and try to spread chaos, fear, and death. This is about when Jia starts seeing visions and Hollow Earth is experiencing seismic shakes sporadically. When Kong is suffering from an infected tooth, he makes an appearance on the surface where we get to meet Trapper (Dan Stevens) who does a great job playing this new character in the franchise. He brings a vibe of Chris Pratt’s “Star Lord” here with the attitude and the music… and I’m here for it.

            After Trapper fixes his tooth, they decide to follow Kong back down to Hollow Earth to find out why they can’t reach their outpost. But before they go, Dr. Andrews enlists the help of Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry) from the last movie to figure out what her daughter is seeing. They all journey through the portal and discover that the outpost has been destroyed. As this is going on, Kong discovers another layer in Hollow Earth that goes even deeper and it has a whole civilization of giant gorillas just like him living down there. But, the bad part is they are ruled by the Skar King (an orangutan-like titan). The Skar King wants to make it to the surface world to take over and he has an ancient titan named Shimo under his control. He uses Shimo to rule by fear and have all the other giant gorillas doing whatever he wants.

            This is where the story begins to get someone coincidental. Dr. Andrews and the other humans discover an ancient civilization of people also living down there behind some old ruins (much like Congo). It just so happens that they were the ones sending the signal which was thought to be small earthquakes. Oh, and of course, they have ancient carvings on a wall that say Jia is the chosen one that will be used to wake up Mothra and help save them. So, after Kong nearly gets taken out by the Skar King and Shimo, Trapper once again saves the day by using a prototype that Monarch developed for Kong to wear on his hand. As he makes his way to the surface to call Godzilla, Jia awakens Mothra. After a brief battle on the surface, Mothra shows up and enlightens Godzilla as to what he needs to do.

            The three of them show up in time to fight the Skar King, Shimo, and his army. As the battle wages on, they all get sucked into the portal and arrive on the surface world where the battle rages on. Eventually, they break the curse the Skar King had on Shimo and they all work together to take him down and end his reign for good. Kong goes back with Shimo and the little gorilla to presumably free the others and live among his own kind. Godzilla goes back to rest up after the battle as the humans are left to pick up the pieces.

            Honestly, this is right on par with the other Godzilla and Kong movies in the series. None of them are terrible, and none of them are amazing either. The acting is good and exactly what you would expect from this sort of film. The visual effects are where it shined. Some of the wide shots of Hollow Earth look phenomenal and the creatures all look real, even on the big screen. As I mentioned before, some of the situations were a little too on-the-nose with how things just happened to work out for them. I do a good job of putting rational thoughts behind me when watching a movie like this, but sometimes it just goes too far with those sorts of coincidences.

            In the end, this is a fun movie and I had a good time watching it. That’s all you can ask from a film anyway. With the fun factor and visuals combined, that can overcome any of its other shortcomings and will end up with a 6 out of 10 for me. (Maybe 6.5!)

            Thanks for reading and join me again here next week for another mindless movie article of some sort.