Movie Review: ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’

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Now this is an epic fun escapist fantasy worth seeing in theaters. A nearly two-hour thrill ride of giant iconic monsters fighting across, and within, the globe along with a few human characters to provide expositions, comic relief, and a touch of emotion. It is rare now that I would say a movie needs to be seen in theaters (most do not, no matter how hard promotions try to push the “only in theaters” line – to me “only in theaters” generally means “you can wait a few more months”), but this movie was amazing in an IMAX theater. Just leave your brain at home because if you stop to think for a minute or two, your brain might hurt from all the lucky coincidences or scientific impossibilities or what must be thousands of dead humans underneath the destructive path of the Titans. Just go along with the story being told and enjoy the PG-13 carnage and visually stimulating scenery.

The top icons of the “MonsterVerse”, Godzilla and Kong, are back and joining forces to fight off a new threat that is returning from unexplored depths of the Earth. But wait, the movie must build up to that climactic showdown. At the beginning of the movie, Godzilla and Kong are keeping their distance with Godzilla patrolling the Titan threats on the surface and Kong stomping out threats and exploring for his own domain down in Hollow Earth. Meanwhile, both the scientists monitoring the Titans and Hollow Earth and Jia (Kaylee Hottle), a deaf orphaned Iwi native (returning from Godzilla vs Kong), get signals/visions that are determined (spoilers) to be a distress call originating from deep within the Hollow Earth. So, a team is gathered to head down to Hollow Earth… right after Kong comes to the surface for some much-needed dental work. Again, do not think too much, but it is amazing how humanity has prepared for multiple scenarios involving the Titans, especially Kong and his damaged limbs (i.e. paraphrasing: “Kong’s arm is wounded… we have something for that which will also make him stronger and happens to be not far from here”).

There really is not much more to say about the movie… or, at least, if I keep going much longer, I will start to nitpick or spoil more than I have already. Overall, the movie is entertaining, visually jaw-dropping, with edge-of-your-seat action, and a fairly decent fantasy story that ties it all together. It is nice to see how the returning characters have tried to adapt after the events of the last movie(s) and the new characters add some new levels that complement each other. One new character in particular, Trapper (Dan Stevens who I have just realized as I am writing this was Charles Dickens in The Man Who Invented Christmas), is just a relatable joy throughout the movie. If you have enjoyed the previous movies in the “MonsterVerse”, you will likely enjoy this one as well.