GODZILLA x KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE (2024)

Studio:   Legendary/Warner Bros.
Director: Adam Wingard
Writer:   Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett, Jeremy Slater
Producer: Thomas Tull, Brian Rogers, Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Eric McLeod
Stars:    Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, Fala Chen

Review Score:

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Summary:

Godzilla and Kong forge an unexpected alliance when an ancient Titan resurfaces and threatens to destroy both Hollow Earth and the surface world.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

In his new habitat within Hollow Earth, Kong battles vicious creatures while conducting an ongoing search for other great apes like him. Although Kong kills all the enemies, he suffers severe pain from an infected tooth.

Above ground, Godzilla continues protecting humanity by battling the Titan Scylla in Rome, Italy. After defeating Scylla, Godzilla takes over the Colosseum for use as a resting area.

After detecting an unidentified signal, Monarch Outpost One, which is dedicated to Kong Observation in Hollow Earth, alerts Monarch Director Hampton, who in turn contacts Dr. Ilene Andrews, Monarch's Head of Kong Research, at the Hollow Earth Access Point in Barbados. At the same time, Ilene's adopted daughter Jia, who became the last survivor of the Iwi people following Skull Island's destruction, suddenly experiences psychic visions that cause her to draw triangular shapes while entranced. Ilene soon realizes that Jia's drawings match the pattern of the signal that Outpost One detected.

Ilene travels to Miami, Florida, to consult conspiracy theory podcaster Bernie Hayes, whom she previously met in Hong Kong. In exchange for his help uncovering what the signal means and why it is affecting her deaf daughter, Ilene agrees to bring Bernie with her to Hollow Earth.

Kong unexpectedly surfaces on Earth. Through her unique bond with him and their shared ability to communicate using sign language, Jia reveals Kong is in pain. After Kong is sedated, adventurous veterinarian Trapper replaces Kong's infected tooth with a synthetic one to heal him.

Bernie discovers the unidentified signals are actually a distress call coming from Hollow Earth that Godzilla also picked up on. Director Hampton agrees to send Ilene, Bernie, Trapper, and armed Monarch operative Mikael down to Hollow Earth to investigate. Jia convinces Ilene to let her go on the mission, too. Bringing Kong back with them as well, Ilene and the team discover Outpost One was destroyed by an unknown attack. While tracking the signal, Mikael is eaten by a sentient forest plant.

Now on his own again, Kong recovers his ax before finding an uncharted subterranean realm with other great apes like him. Kong defeats several aggressive apes in battle, but he also befriends a young primate named Suko. Suko begins bonding with Kong during their subsequent journey, which includes battling a massive sea serpent.

Godzilla makes its way to Montagnac, France, where it absorbs massive amounts of radiation from a nuclear facility. After traversing through Cadiz, Spain, Godzilla next travels to the Arctic Ocean where it kills the Titan Tiamat to absorb even more energy from Tiamat's lair. Monarch concludes Godzilla is powering up in preparation for an imminent threat.

Ilene, Bernie, Trapper, and Jia find structures, including a temple dedicated to Mothra, built by an Iwi tribe using magnetic manipulation in Hollow Earth. Upon reaching the source of the distress signal, the group uncovers a hidden Iwi settlement capable of communicating telepathically and now living among energized crystals beneath portals leading all over the world.

Iwi runes reveal that long ago, Hollow Earth and the surface world lived in harmony. Titans were guardians of nature while great apes became protectors of humanity. However, a ruthless ape known as Skar King threatened that peace by leading a war against Godzilla to conquer the surface world. Using a crystal to control the creature through pain, Skar King enslaved the ancient Titan Shimo, whose frost powers Skar King used to create the Ice Age. Godzilla ultimately won the battle and imprisoned the apes within a fiery realm in Hollow Earth, but Skar King remained obsessed with returning to the surface.

Ilene realizes the Iwi sent the distress signal because they knew Kong's quest to find other great apes would threaten to release Skar King from his prison, and they wanted to summon Godzilla for help. Already worried that she might lose her daughter now that Jia has perhaps found people and a place where she truly belongs, Ilene further learns a prophecy foretold of Jia awakening Mothra to defend the Iwi as an ally of Godzilla.

Kong and Suko finally find the great ape settlement where Skar King rules over enslaved apes. When Kong fights to free the slaves, Skar King emerges for a battle where he harnesses Shimo's ice breath to damage Kong's right arm with frostbite. Kong flees with great apes in pursuit, but Suko saves him.

Kong and Suko make it to the Iwi sanctuary where Kong collapses from his injury. Recognizing Kong may lose his arm from frostbite, Trapper retrieves a prototype cybernetic arm, which came from Monarch's abandoned Project Powerhouse experiments to crate augmentations for Titans, from Outpost One's armory. Kong recovers after being fitted with the mechanical appendage.

Having secretly tracked Kong to the Iwi settlement, a great ape scout informs Skar King of Kong's location. Mounted on Shimo, Skar King leads his ape army against the Iwi settlement.

With Skar King approaching, Jia communicates to Kong that they will need help preventing Shimo from going up to Earth. Kong and Suko surface in Cairo, Egypt, to collect Godzilla, but a fight ensues when Godzilla treats the two apes as hostile.

The Iwi prepare Jia to awaken Mothra since Mothra is the key to Godzilla protecting Hollow Earth and its pathways to the surface. After its awakening, Mothra and Jia travel to the pyramids where Mothra halts Kong and Godzilla's battle by telepathically communicating the true danger to Godzilla.

Godzilla, Kong, Suko, and Mothra return to Hollow Earth to fight Skar King and Shimo. Eventually, the monsters fall into a portal that moves their conflict to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There, Skar King directs Shimo to unleash its devastating ice breath. Over the course of the confrontation, Shimo eventually breaks free from Skar King's control and uses its breath to freeze the ape. Kong then smashes Skar King into thousands of pieces. Godzilla releases the rest of its stored radiation, which parts the sky to return Rio to its normal climate.

Mothra returns Jia to Ilene in Hollow Earth before restoring the protective barrier around the Iwi settlement. Jia chooses to go home with her mother rather than remain with the Iwi tribe. Godzilla returns to Rome's Colosseum to continue slumbering. Kong, Suko, and Shimo travel back to the great ape settlement where the freed apes celebrate their triumph.

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Review:

I'd wave a white flag of surrender if one of "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire's" harsher critics bemoaned it for being as hollow as the second Earth impossibly existing beneath our planet's surface. The movie is noisy, silly, and would basically be a CGI cartoon if not for intermittent live-action sequences actually shot with a physical camera. Then I'd kindly counter that "Godzilla x Kong" is also flashy, fun, and ten-year-old me would have dug the absolute hell out of it if the film had been in the regular rotation of campy kaiju movies I gleefully grew up with on Saturday afternoon TV.

Like "Godzilla vs. Kong" (review here) before it, "Godzilla x Kong" barely has a story to speak of, maybe even less of one than its predecessor. The setup simply boils down to: an ancient ape who rides a Titan capable of bringing about a new Ice Age awakens in Hollow Earth, and Kong and Godzilla have to come together to stop them from destroying the surface world. A couple of incidental events occur along the way, like Kong adopting a pint-sized (to him) sidekick and some mythology about Mothra. There's even a faint emotional through-line linking Kong and Jia, two displaced Skull Island natives who believe they are the last of their kinds, encountering difficulties adjusting to new homes. Really though, and not unexpectedly, "Godzilla x Kong" only connects essential points on its thin plotline so monster mayhem has minimal obstacles to smash through.

Also like "Godzilla vs. Kong," the human characters in "Godzilla x Kong" essentially operate as narrators who only exist to explain things to the audience since the creatures can't speak. These humans have minimal direct interaction with Kong, and none whatsoever with Godzilla, unless you count a few hapless fighter jets that futilely try to prevent Godzilla from absorbing radiation at a French nuclear facility.

If I'm being unabashedly honest, I didn't even realize Rebecca Hall's character, Monarch researcher Dr. Ilene Andrews, carried over from "Godzilla vs. Kong." I didn't remember that Brian Tyree Henry's conspiracy theorist Bernie Hayes was a returning character either, until I reread the synopsis I wrote for the preceding entry and an "Oh yeah, him" finally clicked for me.

My critics can claim I'm either stupid or forgetful, but I contend the evaporation of those characters from my memory says more about how ultimately inconsequential they really were to what went on in that movie. As for what they and their companions do in "Godzilla x Kong," I ended up deleting most of the notes I wrote for the new synopsis regarding what the humans were up to while the monsters were monstering, because almost none of it impacted anything important at all. While Hall mostly moves exposition along through her dialogue, Henry and Dan Stevens play their parts with winks in their eyes for comic relief that keeps the spirit light, and that's about it.

For a popcorn-munching movie like this though, what's more important are the colossal creatures, and "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" does not disappoint in that department. Over the course of the movie, the two Titans embark on a globe-spanning adventure that serves as an excuse to see these big beasts battle in epic fashion in locations as iconic as they are. Godzilla's tail spanks ancient structures in Rome before Big G sleeps like a baby inside the comfy Colosseum. Kong and Godzilla suplex each other into Egyptian pyramids. Then there's a climactic confrontation that takes place beneath the outstretched arms of the Jesus statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Somehow, the Hollow Earth portals all lead to gorgeous locales where the film's crew undoubtedly enjoyed their time off, instead of places like Ypsilanti, Michigan, but Godzilla and Kong know how to put on marquee matchups regardless of where their ring is.

Anyone who thinks Kong's cybernetic power arm is too clownish of an inclusion to be believable isn't considering Minilla, Godzooky, the Mothra twins, and every other element of absurdity that's been part of Godzilla lore throughout 70+ years of media. Grounded human drama can be found in the "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" TV series. Toho's modern Japanese films continue to double as contemplative social allegories. Meanwhile, these MonsterVerse movies are where fans can find the spectacle of giant monsters just beating the snot out of each other.

Pick what you want to put on your plate. I for one am thankful there are multiple menu items for everyone to enjoy, and I'll gladly wolf down the cavity-causing junk food "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" entertainingly sloshes out with its ludicrously conceived ladle.

Review Score: 70

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