GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE - Mark Reviews Movies

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Warner Bros. Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | March 29, 2024

Watching the final battle of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (The "x" is technically "cross," basically signifying a team-up), it's a nice surprise that we're not inundated with human characters explaining what's happening, how it's happening, and the ancient back story that led up to this particular moment. One could argue that the movie doesn't need to, because the screenplay, written by a trio that wasn't involved in the goofy and imaginative fun of the previous entry in this franchise, has already gotten all of that information out of the way, usually in the dullest and most intrusive way possible.

The better case, though, is that director Adam Wingard, who did helm the ridiculous entertainment that was Godzilla vs. Kong, knows that words don't matter when the team of a good-hearted giant ape and a monstrous fire-breathing lizard are fighting an opposing pair-up of an evil colossal ape and a massive ice-spewing lizard. Stated explanations would just get in the way, and we have a lengthy history of monster movies as evidence of that fact.

It'll probably sound about as silly as the idea of the last brawl in this movie, but Wingard allows all of the explanations to be revealed through visual language. Here, it's scenes such as a skyscraper-sized ape realizing he can get the upper-hand by way of a crystal that controls the lizard that's his foe, for example. The key is that nobody has to tell us what Kong figures out and tries to do at that exact moment. The movie tells us by way of the ape's expression, the monsters wrestling for the crystal, and that lizard realizing the pain the crystal causes it has ceased.

To those who haven't seen the movie, none of this probably makes any sense, and that's for the best. It makes perfect sense within the absurd logic of this story, which is one of its better qualities, and the in the moment of that sequence, because Wingard knows this is the big payoff to a confrontation the movie has been promising for about 90 minutes or so.

After letting the script force-feed us so much exposition and myth and otherworldly technical nonsense, the director just shuts everyone up and allows the monsters to do their thing. In a weird way, Wingard trusts the monsters to be able to do that, and it's a shame screenwriters Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett, and Jeremy Slater don't have a similar level of confidence in them.

Instead, most of the movie amounts to a limited number of human characters—especially returning Kong expert Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), who apparently has been doing a lot of Godzilla-related homework since we last saw her—telling us everything we need but don't especially want to know about the plot and its background. Kong now calls the Hollow Earth, a realm deep beneath the surface, his home, and he's still searching for fellow giant apes—his long-lost and presumed-dead family.

He gradually makes his way deeper and deeper into the uncharted places of Hollow Earth, finding what he has been looking for after a few adventures. Later rather than sooner, Kong discovers these other big apes aren't what he was expecting, and actually, "later rather than sooner" is a pretty concise way of describing the screenplay's overall storytelling philosophy.

Meanwhile on the surface, Godzilla is traveling around Europe and beyond, looking for ways to increase his already-destructive powers for reasons that have to do with a telepathic signal being broadcast from somewhere in Hollow Earth. A battle's coming, and the promise is that it'll get here eventually.

At a certain point, at least one of the writers had to suspect that maybe the constant recitation of information—about these specific details and the pre-historical history of these familiar and new monsters—isn't what's really important this sort of story. If any of them did, the movie offers no reason to believe that, because Ilene keeps explaining and monster podcaster Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry) keeps providing theories. Meanwhile, titan veterinarian Trapper (Dan Stevens) hangs around to be funny, and Ilene's adopted daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle) learns she has a more significant connection with Kong and at least one other monster than anyone believed.

This isn't necessarily a human-character problem (or one on account of the lack thereof), because three of these central characters worked in their own ways in the previous film, while Trapper's general foolishness fits with the tone of the over-the-top spectacle and winking humor. Well, it does when the movie makes room for those elements between the characters' speculation and lessons about the monsters' motives, ancient grudges, and world-conquering goals. No, the movie's biggest problem is that the human characters mainly exist to explain, their explanations are unnecessary, and just about every scene involving them is a distraction from what could be—and, still, occasionally—is silly, superficial fun here.

That includes Kong's quest to a kingdom of forced ape labor among rivers of lava, Godzilla taking a well-deserved rest curled up in the Colosseum, a couple of fights before the big one, and, obviously, the big brawl itself. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire talks its way out of a lot of potential entertainment and into a continual lull.

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