“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” brings kaiju craziness
The seventh movie in the Warner Brothers Monsterverse saga, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” has touched down in theaters. Fans of kaiju, especially of Godzilla, have been eating well recently with both the release of this film and last year’s Oscar-winning “Godzilla: Minus One.” While the films are very different in tone, “Godzilla: Minus One” is a more serious retelling of the monster’s origin, while “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is more of a big spectacle featuring the two most famous kaiju. Fans have been equally excited for both. So, does this new Monsterverse entry live up to the hype?
Spoilers ahead.
If you aren’t caught up with the Monsterverse movies, don’t worry, because you don’t really need to be. I haven’t even seen all of the Monsterverse movies, but the plot is so simple and explained almost every step of the way. Even if this is your first Monsterverse movie, you can still keep up.
The film begins in Middle Earth, King Kong’s new home after being banished away from humanity. To Kong’s (and the humans’) knowledge, he is the last of his kind. You can tell that Kong has become lonely and isolated, relentlessly fighting off the other creatures that inhabit Middle Earth. Godzilla, on the other hand, roams the surface of the Earth, traveling from country to country, leaving nothing but dead monsters and carnage in his wake. The human characters responsible for tracking both Kong and Godzilla are led by Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), a leading researcher on kaiju. When her daughter begins to see and draw strange symbols, King Kong begins to move further down Middle Earth and Godzilla begins to move toward an unknown monster. She enlists the help of conspiracy theorist and podcaster, Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry), and fellow scientist Trapper (Dan Stevens) to help her find out what is drawing these monsters together.
King Kong’s journey into Middle Earth leads to a surprise encounter with other surviving members of his species. However, they aren’t as friendly as he’d hoped, and he’s soon ambushed by a group of them. He quickly dispatches the kaiju, but leaves the smallest of them alive, so that he can lead Kong to where the rest of their species is holding up. Kong and this new “Baby Kong” develop a friendship over the movie that really helps to characterize Kong, and he is probably the best-constructed character in the film, even though he doesn’t speak a word of dialogue. Most of the plot is pushed forward by his search for the remaining members of his species. On the other hand, Godzilla takes on a much smaller role in the plot. While Kong is on his quest, Godzilla is either sleeping, traveling, or getting the occasional fight scene with a random kaiju that ends after a few minutes. This isn’t out of the norm for Godzilla though, as he hasn’t gotten more than 15 minutes of screen time in any of the Monsterverse movies he has appeared in.
The main antagonist of the story and the kaiju that has been pulling both Kong and Godzilla toward Middle Earth turns out to be the Scar King, a member of Kong’s race who has Kong’s entire species enslaved. To keep them in line, he uses the power of another monster, Shimu, who can freeze anything in seconds with its icy breath. It takes the combined power of Godzilla and Kong to free Shimu, defeat the Scar King, and rescue the slaves under his terrible rule.
While the human characters are pretty flat, the writing is cheesy, and the plot is cut and dry, there’s still some enjoyment to be had when watching the movie. The action scenes between the monsters are over the top (Godzilla hits another monster with a suplex at one point) but I feel like that’s the point of these big action monster movies, so I was satisfied. Plus, the movie is much funnier than I expected, with most of the best comedic moments surprisingly coming from King Kong. If you’re looking for a good time, grab some friends and witness your favorite monsters fighting in all of their insane glory.