Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome back to my Movie Review.
Yes, im back in business from hiatus after been watching three movies in negative result to clearing my mind and doing other reviews, so after all that bad movies I received, its time to get off my chest to hopefully finding my next movie, this time, we’re going back to Kaiju films in Monsterverse. Though I was originally planned to see Godzilla Minus One, but came too late from new movies in January (ugh…), but considering when we had celebration with the release of Minus One and even the announcement of today’s review after we had Godzilla vs Kong.
“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is a 2024 Kaiju film that was written/directed by Adam Wingard, produced by Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, Brian Rogers, Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, and Eric McLeod, then co-written by Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett, and Jeremy Slater.
Following the success of Godzilla vs Kong, Legendary Pictures had an opportunity that after the CEO Josh Grode said they had a number of ideas of more movies, along with the trend of “ContinueTheMonsterverse” (I don’t know if its either the concern of expired project or others thinking its gonna be fully focus on Kong while Godzilla is going outside for new movies), this made the company opened the door to make more in Monsterverse, the first of which they gave us is “Skull Island”, an animated show that took place after “Kong: Skull Island” since it takes place in the 90s and its on Netflix, and there’s “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” a live-action show that took place after 2014 Godzilla and its on AppleTV+ (ugh…!). And so, they went on to make the next movie involving Godzilla and Kong and many other plans in their mind for more money at the box-office for Kaiju fans, especially brought back with previous people who’s been involved with Godzilla vs Kong, including some in off-credit like Michael Dougherty.
So, with all that said, will Godzilla and Kong will be a nice working together, or going in Hollow Earth is worst idea while digging deep in a rabbit hole?
Well, lets find out.
The Story
While Godzilla vs Kong has a nice introduction of Hollow Earth, even if its kinda out of place for a battle of two icons, this movie’s story makes a lot more sense that we like to dig deeper about Hollow Earth.
The movie begins with Kong living in normal life on Hollow Earth, hunting down predators for food to keeping himself safe, despite he’s gotten age poorly that he’s getting old, while Godzilla is busy hunting down other titans on his way, while… Relaxing in Colosseum… Okay…? However, at the Monarch received an alert that one of their outpost in Hollow Earth and last surviving tribe girl name “Jia” having a hallucination vision while attending in school, resulting CEO of Monarch and adoptive mother Dr. Ilene Andrews checking her for what’s going on, as it turns out Jia is alerted for predicting Godzilla goes power hungry for absorbing energies and probably other things what are coming from Hollow Earth (I think). After taking care of tooth ache and replacing new one with the help of Trapper, as well as bringing Kaiju conspiracy podcast host Bernie Hayes, its up to Ilene with her group, along with Kong to coming down to the sinkhole to going back to Hollow Earth for exploration where Monarch group are finding if there’s a surviving tribe, while Kong searches if he’s not the only one, even if there might be an evil threat with a new villain named “Skar King” with his pet “Shimo”, while Godzilla is finding more powers to getting more stronger as a power hungry King of Kaiju.
Jeez, while I appreciated the plot about digging deep into Hollow Earth, but this is like three plots in the movie, where Monarch’s exploration if there’s a remaining tribe, Kong exploring if he’s not the last kind and Godzilla goes power hungry from absorbing radiation to fighting against other titans. But to be fair, at least it goes from point A, point B to point C instead of jumping all over the place before we get to the epic showdown at third act. Aside that, like I said, its nice to give a plot development to giving us the exploration at Hollow Earth for either a remaining tribe or an isolated empire. Though the one plot with Kong is pretty nice, no dialogue, but giving that we like to see his, a little giant ape name Soku and Skar King, whereas the Monarch part is more dialogue driving to showing us what happened to the past with the titans, but not gonna give a SPOILER details, though its nice, but sometimes some human dialogue could be either executed well for plot driven, but some didn’t mesh for either acknowledge or even for the sake of cheap humors, but to be fair, even without the speaking dialogue, its also nice to giving deaf language gesture (due to Kaylee Hottle, who reprised Jia, who’s unfortunately born with deaf, pretty sad, but we gotta let deaf actors like her to do it with sign language with all due respect, which is something I forgot to mentioning it in my review of Godzilla vs Kong, so my apology for forgetting an unfortunate life to her). However, despite I like to see Godzilla, but as far as im concerned, the movie mainly focuses on both Kong and Monarch on their split exploration, whereas Godzilla is pretty much on his own, no character development, nothing, its just… Godzilla goes into grinding for gaining more energy to be stronger before (my apology for SPOILER) facing against one titan called “Tiamat” due to having a cosmic radiation that gives him a magenta power (or pink power if you like to call it), which again, Godzilla action with magenta wouldn’t be until the climatic showdown on third act, talk about a waste of space for lackluster development of Godzilla for the sake of gaining power without even knowing about Hollow Earth while being busy living on Earth’s surface.
While some part are either poorly executed or even flat out lackluster, but at least the story is nice to giving us the exploration of Hollow Earth for the purpose of plot conveniences.
The Presentation
By comparison, Godzilla vs Kong’s budget costed between $155–200 million, that’s rather a lot, but pretty cool, here, the movie’s budget cut cost on $135–150 million. Kinda low, but it looks pretty good as always.
For the location, its no stranger that most backgrounds are either done with sound stage when the actors are around or CG when titans are around, even though its obvious to look at, but in fairness, they look fairly descent for what they’ve done. But, remember when I questioned the scene when Godzilla is relaxing on Rome’s Colosseum? Well, it turns out, it was a reference from Godzilla Minus One as a pay tribute for recreating a shot, that’s a nice reference they pulled, even if I should’ve watching Godzilla Minus One in a first place… Aw well. As for Hollow Earth itself, when we first saw it in Godzilla vs Kong, it looks pretty good, though kinda out of place, which is basically like Earth’s surface, but with ground as the air with random sinkhole portal, look nice, but kinda missed the mark when its about icon vs icon (twice…), here, they made some new locations like Kong’s home cave, the protective home tribe, the cave of giant apes and couple other environment from beautiful view and unique ones like the crystals, which is an improvement when its all about the exploration at Hollow Earth.
As for the designs, they made a nice upgrades. For Kong, as you can see, as I said before, he’s gotten aged poorly, while he still looks strong, but he looks like he took a lot of abuse like his age gotten ugly and having scars. I guess its not hard to see why the amount of damages he took for either living in Hollow Earth of hunting predators or even fighting against other Kaijus other than Godzilla. I guess its not hard to see why Kong is more in a drama way that we bad for him, more on him later.
As for Godzilla, while he looks the same, extra large, powerful and menacing like we’ve seen. Though we see him with signature atomic blue beam, here, with killing Tiamat for absorbing cosmic radiation, he goes into full magenta (or pink), when I first saw it, I had no idea how he changes his color of his radioactive power, I was first guessing he receives a unique color changing from crystal in the arctic, but I was wrong after seeing the movie. But yes, im aware everyone are pretty much divided for his changing for all those reasons, but here’s the secret, its not the first time Godzilla has different colors other than blue (aside his burning form, either dying or Beast Mode), that goes to “Godzilla 2000”, when he looks completely different with dark green body and spinal fins are light-purple and nearly magenta, and his atomic breath color is orange. Pretty odd how he looks in Godzilla 2000, but he looks fairly descent.
Believe it or not, both Godzilla and Kong are not the only one returns (except for one that had been teased, but again, no further details) is Scylla, you know, a giant spider who looks a cross between snail from his back and Cthulhu from his face? Yeah, its a one unique giant spider as a replacement from scrapped Kumonga.
As for new titans? The first we see is Suko, who’s a small little ape, depicted as a kid who’s nervous to see Kong in action, again, im pretty sure its to add an emotion for Kong’s development in his journey to seeing more giant apes. I guess they want him to look cute, but he looks passable to me. And based on what we see Kong interacting Suko, its no stranger that they referencing Son of Kong in 1933.
Then we have villainous titans, such as Skar King, who’s basically a giant orangutan with his sadistic and brutal, which I will admit, he looks rather terrifying with bloody fur and using spinal cord with crystal as a weapon, again, more on his later. There’s Shimo, who likes like exotic version of stegosaurus with fins on her back, but unlike Godzilla, he has ice power, even though she’s treated as Skar’s pet. And lastly there’s Tiamat is basically a Kaiju sized sea serpent with cosmic radiation, pretty unique design of her, but too bad she didn’t last long.
As for the effects, they’re pretty nice for either the environment, the powers from either monsters or even Hollow Earth, its as nice work of effect they’ve done. However, one downside I have is that, even though I like seeing Kaijus fighting, it also have some blood, however, the blood from other giant monsters are… Not good looking like nearly cheap that the blood effect is like a last minute inclusion in a rush before it premiered. I’ve seen better blood effect from Mortal Kombat (the games, not the movies).
And finally, there’s the action scenes, unlike Godzilla vs Kong, this one goes all in with multiple of Kaiju fights from Kong facing against Skar King in his risk, along with Kong fight against other hostile giant apes, Godzilla beating other titans way too easy (Yeah, he likes to kill them easily with a harsh scratch) and of course, the ultimate showdown on the third act. Again, im pretty Kong is more focus on Action, while Godzilla is left like a near afterthought when he goes around, killing titans for gaining more powers, which we see more Godzilla action wouldn’t be until, again, the third act.
While it has some problems how Godzilla has a near minimal of appearance than Kong, but at least the setting of the world, the effects, the Kaiju designs and the battle are pretty good and fun to watch.
The Characters
Now, you think if the characters in this movie will make a nice change compare to the previous movie, along with the new ones? Well, yes and no.
Lets get to the titans first, starting with Kong himself. As I said before, based on his changing appearance, he looks like he’s gotten old and been abused a lot on his body with scars, in other words, he… Probably badly aged since he fought with Kaijus and hunting predators on his own life. But once he heard about the isolated empire and first interacting Suko, this is where he got himself a life changing, ranging from becoming a father figure to his little fella to first meeting the remaining giant apes while being confronted by Skar King. Pretty much meeting he’s facing a new life what he has seen and been through, despite he’s gone aged badly, its rather nice to giving him an emotional moments and giving him a new development for his new discovery.
As for Godzilla himself, I hate to say that, as I said before, he didn’t have any new development, aside of gaining new powers from Tiamat, he’s just a King of Kaiju being a power hungry monster who’s not only being an anti-hero and being careless towards humans, aside some titans he may respect, despite he’s still being neutral towards Kong. As a fan of Godzilla, while its nice for his new power, but I just wish if they could’ve focus more with Godzilla than Kong, then again, Kong is more of a good guy while Godzilla is an anti-hero.
Ignoring Scylla, cause he’s just there for Godzilla’s body count, as for new titans? Well, they’re nice to be included as new villains (for the most part).
There Suko, who’s basically Kong’s son figure when they first met, but he’s also use as a plot convenient for not just exploring in Hollow Earth, but brought him to the empire of Kong’s kind to realizing Kong isn’t the only one. I’d say its quite nice for a younger giant ape for helping him to finding a surprise, even if he could also being use as a weapon from either other giant apes or even Kong himself, sounds like a “good idea” for domestically abusing a kid like this, and yet, Suko is okay without having a couple of scratches. Damn kid, hope you don’t have a broken back or even a concussion when Kong or others using you as a weapon.
Then there’s the main villain in this movie, Skar King, he’s the king of the giant ape empire (despite he’s a giant orangutan), while he looks pretty intimidating and probably being one evil giant primate you like to hating him, but I find him pretty cliché many things he has, he treats his kind badly either abusing or killing them, he has a pet as his own weapon (thanks to using his crystal to manipulating Shimo) and being the ruler for his iron-fist to killing other titans, despite its Godzilla’s duty killing them on his way. I find him rather fascinating for being a mean-spirited beast, but his character has three cliché he has that I find him, again, fascinating, but passable.
And lastly there’s two titans that they’re aren’t much else to describing, there’s Shimo, an iced titan who’s Skar’s pet, and Tiamat who’s a giant sea serpent that has a cosmic radiation that Godzilla is hunting for to gaining new powers.
As for the humans? Well, they’re there for the plot of finding the tribes, even if they’re pretty much nothing new to tell, even if they may also have a plot conveniences for the third act, there’s Dr. Ilene Andrews (reprised by Rebecca Hall) who’s the CEO of Monarch and being a protective adoptable mother, Jia (reprised by deaf actress Kaylee Hottle) who’s adopted daughter and a tribal girl who only communicating sign languages both the tribe and Kong (still, pretty difficult for her issue, but she does a great work of her performance.), Bernie Hayes (reprised by Brian Tyree Henry) is a titan conspiracy podcast host who’s making whether or not that its a plot convenient, even if he could be annoying for his sharing stories of titans or his thought, Trapper (played by Dan Stevens) who’s titan’s veterinarian who’s coming to helping Kong to recover, despite he’s making cheap humors and likes to playing random music placements (come on, dude, we already been annoyed with Suicide Squad, three licensed songs are ok, but not more than three, man.), a tribe queen (played by Fala Chen) who’s a silent queen for giving us a plot development from the past on Hollow Earth and couple others if I forgot about.
The characters in this movie have some nice developments, but most of them are either one dimensional or even plain lackluster.
And now for my final opinion of this film
Overall, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a pretty good, but its not as better what I expected, even if I may have fun with it.
The story is pretty nice for exploration, the presentation looks pretty good, the titans are also pretty good for their design, despite Kong is the focus than our King of Kaiju, the kaiju fight scenes are pretty fun to watch, even if some could be brutal or came off too easy and some characters are good.
However, its nowhere greater when there’s flaws with some cheap CG blood, some lackluster character development like either humans or even Godzilla himself and having three plots are good, but the plot with Godzilla’s grinding is pretty lacking for me, again, im guessing they focused too much on Kong and the plot development further about Hollow Earth.
Even though it may not be my favorite, but im definitely considered as a recommended movie for the fans of Kaijus, or which tribe fans like fans of Kong or fans of Godzilla. Though if you’re an outsider, maybe you can watch it once if you like it or not, otherwise, maybe this could be an okay sequel.
For my rating, im probably gonna give this one a 6.5/10.
Well, after I’ve been dealt with three movies in a bad results, looks like im all good to going back to watching recent films in 2024, cause even though im recovered, but im rather concerned that 2024 might be a bad year when it comes to movies, but we’ll see how it goes for next movies we’re getting for my future movie review after I took a hiatus to clearing my mind, along with doing other reviews.
Anyway, So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.
Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out.
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