The New Empire Never Quite Clicks

At the very least, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire delivers on its biggest promise. You get to see lots of giant creatures fighting other giant creatures. Godzilla and Kong are just two of many and, when they fight in fantastical-looking settings with eye-popping color and lighting, there’s an undeniable pleasure in it.

However, everything that’s not a fight in Godzilla x Kong feels like overly complicated filler inserted to kill time before the next fight. The result is a movie filled with ebbs and flows that never feel particularly cohesive or interesting, even though the movie does an admirable job attempting to distinguish itself from other, similar films.

Once again directed by Adam Wingard, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire picks up where Godzilla vs. Kong left off. In that film, humanity discovered an entirely new world in the center of the planet called Hollow Earth where Kong was set to live and reign while his counterpart Godzilla would stay on the surface. These creatures and discoveries have understandably captivated the world and scientists, such as Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), have dedicated their careers to studying them both.

Not everything is as it seems in Hollow Earth though and whatever is happening there sets both Kong and Godzilla on a path toward… something. It seems to also involve Jia (Kaylee Hottle), the adopted daughter of Dr. Andrews, who is now slightly grown up and struggling to integrate into regular life after a childhood on Kong’s former home of Skull Island.

And so the bulk of Godzilla x Kong is about unraveling this mystery. What is spooking these two titans and what does it mean? The story then unfolds three ways, one with the humans (a group that also includes characters played by Dan Stevens and Bryan Tyree Henry) attempting to figure it out, one with Kong on his own journey, and another with Godzilla seemingly acting like a cell phone, traveling the globe and charging up.

Something else is happening too. Alongside the main mystery, Wingard and his team attempt to present these familiar creatures in unfamiliar ways. There are moments between fights where we see them in simpler, everyday situations. Kong takes a shower. Godzilla takes multiple naps. Kong meets a character named Suko, with whom he develops a paternal relationship. Seemingly, the idea is to humanize the characters while also giving Godzilla x Kong its own MonsterVerse perspective. It’s well-intentioned, but ultimately not all that additive. The occasionally funny or cute scenes mostly work to slow down the main plot which was already keeping us from bigger action beats.

In the grand tradition of the MonsterVerse movies, human characters are more or less an afterthought here too. We spend the most time with them, but anytime they’re on screen, we just want more Godzilla or Kong. And so, talented actors like Rebecca Hall and Bryan Tyree Henry get mostly lost in the mix. One person who does get the assignment though is Dan Stevens. His character, Trapper, a thrill-seeking veterinarian who specializes in titans, is so ridiculous, he actually improves every scene he’s in. Beyond him, everyone else just feels like set dressing.

Plus, everything builds in a way that’s almost too methodical for this genre. There are mini-set pieces throughout providing moments of excitement, and one or two revelations of note, but more often than not, most of the film feels like homework for a final test. The final test where, per the title of the movie, Godzilla and Kong will team up to battle the threat they’ve been sensing.

Now, I shouldn’t admit this, but I will. All of Godzilla x Kong’s flaws probably would have been forgiven if that big finale, the moment the whole movie has been aiming towards in an overly deliberate way, was a jaw-dropping showstopper. But it isn’t. It’s certainly cool and brings all the story threads together in a logical way, including a very exciting addition for fans of the genre, but at no point does anything in it feel as entertaining or surprising as the finale of the previous film, which pitted the characters first against each other, then against Mechagodzilla. If Godzilla x Kong had just stuck the landing, I would’ve been happy. It does not.

Watching Godzilla x Kong, I also couldn’t help but wonder if this movie was hurt in any way by the release and success of Godzilla Minus One. On paper, multiple Godzilla movies released in such close proximity wouldn’t be a problem. Especially if they’re both tonally frivolous and fun. But Godzilla Minus One gave us excitement as well as emotion and poignancy. It set an immediate, timely bar in our minds for what a Godzilla movie could be, even if that level of quality is the exception, not the rule. Then here comes Godzilla x Kong, a well-made, big-budget spectacle much more in line with somewhat disposable Godzilla fare, and it just doesn’t click. Why did Minus One work so well and this one doesn’t?

Ideally, there would be no connection between the two. They’re different movies, different filmmakers, different everything save for one giant, green character. But psychologically, just because of the timing, there’s that extra level of expectation this movie doesn’t deliver on. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is not a bad movie. It’s not painful to watch. There are good ideas in it along with beautiful visuals. It is, however, largely forgettable once it ends, and that’s a letdown when you’ve got two of the biggest stars ever, literally, together again.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is now in theaters.

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