Movie Breakdown: Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire
Pre-Screening Stance:
I had a great time with Godzilla Vs Kong and while I’m put off by the thoroughly terrible title that is Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, I have faith in returning-director Adam Wingard to once again pull off something entertaining.
Post-Screening Ramble:
Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire is sort of fun, sort of a chore. The story is, of course, pretty ridiculous. Godzilla is up top on regular Earth where he’s bumping around, kicking titan ass, and seemingly charging for something big, and Kong is down below in Hollow Earth where he’s spending a lot of time searching for another of his kind. Meanwhile, a group of folks at Monarch, led by Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), have detected a weird signal emanating from Hollow Earth, so they head there to try and locate it. Bingo-bango, the three parties eventually get pulled together to face off against a pair of ancient titans.
I’d love to note that the plot here doesn’t really matter and it’s just the brawls that you should concern yourself with, but there’s so much exposition that you can’t escape it. Seriously, this must be the wordiest film in the MonsterVerse franchise – people just go on and on and on and somehow their explanations never clear anything up, it just makes the story even harder to follow. On the bright side, the moments in between all the talking consist of big CG monster scuffles, and those make for a pretty good time. They also provide a really easy marker for when to get up and go to the bathroom since once a fight scene ends, you know you can skip the new few minutes of inane chatter.
If you’ve been into the previous MonsterVerse entries, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire will likely earn a pass from you since it’s more of the same. Yeah, it’s a good bit clunkier and nonsensical, but still, it’s ultimately a familiar ride. And for those who haven’t found much to like in this franchise, I wouldn’t bother here with round five. The film is in theaters as of today, March 29.
One Last Thought:
There’s so much of this movie that makes zero sense, which isn’t unexpected but it feels more egregious than ever before. I was particularly baffled by how the enslaved apes in the sub-world of Hollow Earth (or whatever) are down there just moving rocks around. You never see what it looked like when they started and there is no end-goal for the work that’s ever revealed, so it really appears as though they’re in a hot volcano cave shuffling rocks around from here to there for no apparent reason at all.
