GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE (2024)
Starring Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, Fala Chen, Rachel House, Ron Smyck, Chantelle Jamieson, Greg Hatton, Kevin Copeland, Tess Dobré, Tim Carroll, Anthony Brandon Wong, Sophia Emberson-Bain, Chika Ikogwe, Vincent B. Gorce, Yeye Zhou, Jamaliah Othman and Nick Lawler.
Screenplay by Terry Rossio and Simon Barrett and Jeremy Slater.
Directed by Adam Wingard.
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. 115 minutes. Rated PG-13.
Is it possible for a movie to be dumber than a bag of rocks and still pretty fun? Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire seems to prove that it is indeed possible. The adult in me recognizes that this film is intellectually kind of ridiculous, but damned if it doesn’t give a sense of Saturday afternoon Creature Feature nostalgia that makes you feel like a kid while watching it.
The story makes little to no sense. The people in the background are one-dimensional – although Dan Stevens and Brian Tyree Henry add some needed comic relief. Honestly, they could have probably cut out all of the human characters and the movie would not lose all that much.
Still, I kind of enjoyed myself during Godzilla x Kong. Go figure.
The two “titans” in the title are separate through most of the film, until the slam-bang last section. In fact, they are in different dimensions.
Godzilla is “protecting” Earth from marauding monsters (although he did a whole lot of damage even when “protecting”). Then at night he sleeps in the Roman Coliseum as if it is a giant doggie bed. (I told you there was a lot of stupidity going on here.)
Kong, in the meantime, has been banished to “Hollow Earth,” an entirely different world which seems to be somewhere in the Earth’s core, like something out of Land of the Lost. He is the only giant gorilla in this new world – until he isn’t, when he runs across an evil band of angry, giant monkeys (and one annoyingly cutesy Little Kong). He is returned to the Earth’s surface when Kong has a toothache. (Yes, really, a toothache…)
Then Kong must summon Godzilla (and an extended cameo by Mothra) to fight off the evil giant gorillas and their Godzilla-like giant-lizard co-hort who have escaped to the surface. However, instead of breathing fire like Godzilla, this baddy lizard breathes ice. Kong is even outfitted with a superpowered robot glove… because… why not?
Cut to multiple scenes of giant monsters tossing each other all over Rio De Janeiro, causing maximum damage in name of Earth safety.
Periodically the film will suddenly blast some retro pop hits – like Badfinger’s “Day After Day” and Kiss’ “I Was Made For Loving You” – without explaining how exactly those songs were being played in Hollow Earth. I’m not complaining, though, those songs were some of the better parts of the film.
It’s like one of the old films, however with much better special effects and with the human characters’ lip movements actually matching their dialogue when they speak.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2024 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: March 29, 2024.