Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)                    

54% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 196 reviews)

Runtime: 115 minutes

Directed by: Adam Wingard

Starring: Some of the main players from the last film, plus Dan Stevens

From: Warner Bros./Legendary

Kong takes a shower then goes to the dentist.

Overall, I’ve enjoyed the MonarchVerse that began w/ Kong: Skull Island and continues with this movie. I am OK not having watched any of the show on Apple TV, BTW. Many are likely to disagree but I can enjoy both Minus One and these popcorn pictures. After all, I like both the serious Toho Gojira films and the campier ones, whether he be friend, foe or a tweener. At the time, I thought Godzilla vs. Kong was rather strange; still is, yet it was eclipsed by this movie.

Kong taking a shower then the viewer discovering he has an impacted tooth, requiring human assistance… that’s in the first act; much weirder moments happen afterwards, typically in Hollow Earth. The details won’t be revealed; plenty of time is spent in Hollow Earth and due to the cast/lead characters being paired back from the last film, more time is spent with the giant monsters. That was acceptable when the human scenes included “comedy” that did not always land, exposition dumps, general stupidity at times, awkward moments such as characters suddenly knowing complex lore out of nowhere, and occasional ponderings from me if entire scenes were edited out at the last minute.

What the vast majority is interested in when weighing the option to see a kaiju movie… does that action deliver? I say it does; like in the previous movie, the ample destruction is accompanied by many flashes/uses of color. Also, Dan Stevens was amusing as “an Ace Ventura type” as the most impressive new character & I was entertained by the score, which usually was traditional but sometimes went full synthwave. In addition, at the end of G vs. K I was both flabbergasted and impressed that a random Hollies song from the early 70’s was used to close out the picture. Well, they tripled down on that here; I’m not referring to the Jim Reeves song that opened the film (although I was glad to have learned from the IMDb the title, Welcome to My World) but rather a few boomer songs that randomly pop up. Apparently I am a boomer myself as I’ve liked all those songs for years now!

The movie has overperformed at the box office so far; my IMAX screening (a great way to see such a spectacle) was quite full. Some were really into it, but in the parking lot afterwards a group of people were scoffing at… the future technology. In a universe w/ kaiju monsters and portals to a Hollow Earth. Those weren’t my gripes with the plot, let’s put it that way. But hey, I enjoyed the action and as someone on Movie Twitter (not one of the loony members of that universe) confirmed, Brian Tyree Henry wore a t-shirt that was the movie poster to Exterminator 2 so this will appeal more to certain segments than others.