It’s both a blessing and a curse that Adam Wingard’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) should come out after the historic Oscar win for Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla: Minus One (2023). Between Toho’s efforts in reinventing the brand and the current Monsterverse serving as a classic Hollywood blockbuster spectacle, Godzilla has never felt so popular. Yet, it’s a curse that a film as ridiculously silly and preposterously over-the-top as The New Empire should follow one of the best Godzilla films in Minus One, a film that emphasized its human element alongside the city destruction.
Some will view this film as setting the brand — and the overall Kaiju genre — backward from the recency of Minus One. Others will embrace the CGI fest of giant monsters bashing each other. No nuance, thematic, or human exploration exists in Godzilla x Kong—just huge globs of digital creations punching each other for fist-raising excitement.
Wingard and Yamazaki had a conversation with IMAX regarding their direction of Godzilla and the 70 years of what Godzilla represents. “I want to see the terrifying, strong Godzilla,” Yamazaki begins. “However, the fun and psychedelic Godzilla from the Showa era that you (Wingard) are saying is also an important element of Godzilla.” Yamazaki ends with, “We are maintaining the wide spectrum of this Godzilla IP.”
Godzilla has endured as a character due to decades of interpretations – from the serious, dramatic original Godzilla (1954) to the cartoonish, fun-yet-sometimes-scary films of the Showa era. Both directors understand where their interests lie, and perhaps that is the best attitude to approach this new entry. Wingard has no delusions as to what film he’s making. If mindless, colorful, tantalizing punches are what one craves, Godzilla x Kong delivers. The film serves a type of fun that is more mass-appealing and broad than profound; it lacks the fundamental understanding of why Godzilla is what it is.
Surprisingly, this latest entry is very much Kong-focused. There are chunks of screentime where we get to explore the chaotic death trap that is Hollow Earth, where Kong feels alone and yearns to feel part of his kind. These scenes spare us the corny and bloated dialogue that the human characters must spout. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) returns from Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) along with her adoptive daughter, Jia (Kaylie Hottle), the last surviving member of the Iwi tribe and Kong’s sole human connection. Jia is having difficulty adjusting to societal norms, and she begins to hear strange telepathic energy signals that warn her of something dangerous coming from Hollow Earth. Ilene enlists conspiracy podcaster Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry), another returning character, to understand these signals that could direct them to something deeper and uncovered in Hollow Earth.
Godzilla notices this energy and cruises through landmarks and cities to find more nuclear energy to buff up and prepare for battle. Meanwhile, Kong discovers a secret civilization of other Kong-sized primates, yet they’re under the grueling rulership of a sadistic giant Orangutan, Scar King. Kong finds himself outmatched by this ruler and his fearful legions of primate supporters, who possess a secret weapon capable of unleashing a new ice age. (Didn’t we just deal with this in the recent Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire?)
The shoddy script, co-written by Wingard, Terry Rossio, and Simon Barret, does the audience a favor in excising half of the unnecessary characters of previous films. The cast becomes simplified to the three returning characters plus a new addition in Trapper (Dan Stevens), a goofy, Hawaiian shirt-wearing veterinarian. His inclusion in the narrative makes no sense other than serving the need for a charismatic lead male to bounce off the wooden exposition dump truck Hall’s character is reduced to. Several stretches of the film are committed to Hall explaining every action that is about to happen while talking at length about the lore of Scar King and how Godzilla fits into this colossal mess.
The human characters in most Kaiju films are throwaways; they are empty vessels only there to get us to the monster action set-pieces. While it helps to have the cast pared down, every scene in which there are no monsters is excruciatingly painful. Hall, always the consummate professional, plays it straight as she projects a motherly devotion towards Jia that doesn’t belong in a film where Kong throws a baby ape toward fighting monsters. Henry and Stevens are fine, if a little unbearable at times thanks to the corny, annoying, and clunky writing they’re saddled with.
The most interesting character is Kong, who forms a dysfunctional relationship with an adolescent ape known as Suko. The expressive, battle-hardened Kong is the one with an arc, and Wingard wisely allows a fair amount of time for Kong to react, think, and soak in the happenings of Hollow Earth. For good stretches, Kong is a curious ape, always learning and discovering yet ready for battle when it comes time. Kong will always keep his heart open and be a sympathetic ape who will look out for other animals in distress.
Godzilla, on the other hand, sadly feels reduced to a glorified cameo. If the film’s marketing was honest, it should be retitled, Kong: The New Empire, With a Special Guest Appearance From Godzilla. Godzilla feels relevant in the later half of the film as he meets Kong and realizes he needs to work alongside him to battle their new foe, but it’s hard to gauge their relationship. The film doesn’t seem interested in picking up where we left off in the previous film, where both parties nearly killed each other. Their moment in the trailer where they run alongside each other like two buddy cops in an action movie feels unearned and gimmicky; the two couldn’t care less about each other but will set aside their differences to battle Scar King’s armies.
This film costs nearly ten times as much as Minus One, yet it lacks the real-world tangibility and effectiveness of its predecessor. The creatures are weightless computer creations, lacking the sense of scale of Gareth Edward’s Godzilla (2014) and the weight of the classic Showa films. As trivial of detail as it may be, there was something to watching those old rubber suits hit each other that the recent Monsterverse films lack. Cities, pyramids, and people die casually in glorious fashion, and every punch Kong and Godzilla inflict looks cool but does not feel impactful. The most dynamic fight sequence in the film, a scene in which Godzilla and Kongbattle monsters in zero gravity, disregards any plausibility and embraces the witless nature of the Showa films.
There are only so many times I can say, “I had fun,” or, “This was enjoyable,” until it feels exhaustive and repetitive. It’s akin to eating something you know isn’t good for you, but for the short-term gratification, it feels worth it. Maybe that’s Wingard’s aim: for audiences to not feel guilty in indulging in the idiocy of blockbuster entertainment. To let go of any pretense of quality blockbusters born from studios willing to throw hundreds of millions of dollars into a property like Godzilla. It’s movies like this where I wish my ten-year-old self would take over my body and endear me to the glossy sheen on the screen.
In no way is Godzilla x Kong good or even enjoyable for everyone. For the right mindset and attitude, there are far worse movies to seek that instant high from watching something brainless and slight. After all, there’s nothing more exciting and diverting than Kong ripping apart a monster and bathing it in blood and guts, followed by taking a shower and lounging in Hollow Earth. Sometimes we all need to let out our inner beast in some way.
Review Courtesy of Amritpal Rai
Feature Image Credit to Warner Bros.
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