The letter ‘x’ in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is silent, apparently. It is just about the only silent thing about the latest entry in the MonsterVerse, which sees the two titular titans put aside their differences to join forces against an existential threat. The follow-up to the immensely fun Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), Godzilla x Kong delivers on its tantalising, action-packed promise even if the other elements mostly let the side down.
All seems well in Titan Town, with Godzilla patrolling the surface world and Kong establishing his dominion over the Hollow Earth. This harmony is disrupted when Kong discovers a secret underground society of giant apes, led by the tyrannical and spindly-limbed Skar King. The Skar King wants to lead a conquest of the planet and possesses a terrifyingly powerful prisoner to help him do it. Kong, realising he cannot defeat this evil alone, must convince Godzilla – now looking pretty in pink and taking cat naps inside the Colosseum – to team up with him in a script taken straight out of WWE (there’s even a suplex).
Godzilla vs. Kong proved to be one of the pandemic-afflicted cinema season’s biggest hits, and Adam Wingard is the MonsterVerse’s first returning director (with Gareth Edwards, Jordan Vogt-Roberts, and Michael Dougherty previously taking the reins of different films). Suitably then, this is a director willing to showcase some swagger. Wingard finds some absurd, silly moments of humour almost guaranteed to bring a smile to your face –Kong knocking out one mouthy ape with a single blow and Godzilla high-diving off the Rock of Gibraltar are particular highlights. Wingard has the confidence to colourfully bring out the personality of his monsters, building on the groundwork of Godzilla vs. Kong and having some serious fun while doing so.
The visual style goes harder on the detail, colour, and imagination. Crystallised, shimmering pillars tower over lush green habitats, while cities come crashing down in an even more dramatic fashion than before. Visually these films have rarely looked better, bringing the above and below-ground worlds to life with a vividness and creativity that really works overtime. The effects work on Kong in particular is outstanding; he looks more expressive and detailed than ever before. The visual effects team deserve massive credit for making a CGI gorilla outact every human being in the cast.
The film looks great but sadly shares similar issues to many of its predecessors, particularly Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). The human element is lacking. It was a wise decision to cut down and concentrate the number of human characters this time around, but the flip side of that is that they now have more to do. And, when the script lumps them with little more than exposition and mild comic relief, they feel like a burden with little to offer other than obvious observations and one-liners. Dan Stevens happily hams it up as a titan veterinarian, seemingly the only character at ease with just how crazy the whole thing is, but his apparent history with Dr. Ilene Andrews (a returning Rebecca Hall) is mentioned once and never brought up again. Even Hall’s relationship with Kia (Kaylee Hottle), while touching, is handled in a sedate, predictable manner. The MonsterVerse has proved with Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023) that it can do detailed human characters, so there is little excuse for anything else anymore.
The story is also very lop-sided, more so than Godzilla vs. Kong which blended the necessary explanations and theorisations with bone-crunching kaiju action far more fluidly. The Skar King is introduced at a very late stage, with the promised brawl only coming towards the film’s dying moments. The entire first half of the film, minus a few brief scuffles, is mostly spent moving all of the pieces into place in a frustratingly reserved manner. Godzilla x Kong is just not balanced as it should be, and the pace really suffers for it.
Happily, when the final showdown comes, it hits the mark, the only let-down perhaps being that it isn’t slightly longer. A recurring point about Kong’s dental issues has a gleeful callback, and the battle is just as over-the-top as you could hope for. A brief rematch between Godzilla and Kong is also very satisfying, taken up a notch by Kong’s shiny new mechanised gauntlet. Wingard and the MonsterVerse have nailed how to do the headline-catching, goliath fights. It’s everything else that still needs some work.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is out in cinemas now.