SPOILERS BEWARE!
Ten years ago, on the 60th year of the Godzilla franchise, the Monsterverse burst onto screens with 2014’s Godzilla. After the end of Godzilla Vs. Kong, many fans were worried and were quite vocal on wanting the continuation of Godzilla and Kong’s adventures fighting monsters and exploring the Hollow Earth. Well, the fans got what they wanted and we got Godzilla X Kong the New Empire, once again directed by Adam Wingard.
So what’s the story? Kong is enjoying his time in the Hollow Earth. Defending himself from untold horrors, eating them, and having a bad toothache. However he feels lonely as he is the only one of his kind until he meets Suko, a smaller Kong like ape apart of this brutal tribe of Great Apes lead by the evil Skar King. Meanwhile, Gia, the deaf Iwi girl, is having visions and is drawing strange markings reminiscent seismographs whilst Godzilla is on the movie, fighting Kaiju and evolving for the big fight ahead. It’s up to our heroes to stop Skar King and uncover the secrets of Skull Island and Gia’s destiny.
Let’s get this out of the way, Godzilla X Kong is both blessed and cursed. It’s blessed because it’s not only a somewhat anniversary movie for Godzilla, but also this came out almost 6 months after Minus One, probably the biggest Godzilla movie ever made after Shin. Being critically acclaimed and being the first ever Godzilla movie in 70 years to win an Oscar first Best Visual Effects. And that’s where the curse comes from that it has to now live under a shadow of something that is now considered so beloved and classic. It’s not without merit, though and there are things that stand out, both for better and for worse.
I liked how we got to see more of the Hollow Earth, get to explore the ecosystem and the various monsters down there. There is one moment a guy gets eaten alive by what was supposed to be an uprooted tree. The fight between the four kaiju at the end was something I’ve been wanting see since it’s introduction and seeing the kaiju fly around was just awesome.
Skar King and his tribe of apes were probably my highlight of the whole movie. Skar King is the exact opposite of Kong, both physically and personality wise. He rules the underworld like a tyrant, feared by both his subjects and by the creature he controls, with a twisted charisma to boot. He lures one to lower their defenses before pushing them into a lava river. I also like his design with the snake whip skeleton wrapped around him like a bandolier, and his lanky, almost emaciated form gives him an edge when fighting. If I’m not mistaken, I believe he was based off either an Orangutan and a chimpanzee with the longer arms and a gaunt face, his eyes being pale gives him the impression of him being blind.
The Skar Kingdom, I’m coining that name, is something I liked too; dark and unpleasant. This looks like what I’d imagine the underground of Mount Doom would look like if the orcs had tunneled after it exploded. The bones littered everywhere just made it better.
Now here’s a bit of an odd thing. Way back in Godzilla vs. Kong, the toy line had spoiled Mechagodzilla to the point we all knew who the villain would be. Now history repeats itself with Shimo, the other new kaiju next to Skar King, who was first teased in a Godzilla vs. Kong tie-in with Call of Duty. I don’t know if that was intentional or left out but eagle eyed fans saw this and theories popped up in the intermediate. So how does Shimo fair? Pretty good actually. Being the biggest Kaiju of the Monsterverse, surpassing even King Ghidorah by 3 meters, she is one of my favorites in terms of design and abilities. She’s naturally Godzilla’s opposite, not just the fire and ice stuff but appearances, abilities and roles in the story. A kaiju that breaths ice is something we don’t see a whole lot in Godzilla, in fact not counting recent monsters like the Ice Borer and the Frost Vark this is the first real ice themed monster in Godzilla’s roster.
Shimo, design wise, shares many similarities with Godzilla himself more prominently her back spikes and how they glow when she powers up her frost blast. I especially like her connection to Skar King, who uses this crystal at the end of his whip to control her. The whole evil king controlling a monster, to me, felt akin to the rancor in Jabba’s Palace and I’m sure Skar King used Shimo as such when his followers displease him.
But that’s about it for stuff I liked, unfortunately. Not to say everything else was bad, the film just felt like it could have been more. Adam Wingard is a competent director, but in all honesty he is not the man to continue the Monsterverse. The reason why the MCU was so successful back in the day was that they had a consistent core of writers and directors work on each of the films, case in point James Gunn and the Russo Brothers, who all have a distinctive feel. In the Monsterverse line of films, hands change frequently. And it’s not like it’s bad to switch hands every so often, I’m saying that changing them too quickly can really hurt the tone of the movie.
I wasn’t a fan of the music either, unfortunately. It felt generic, with taking only slight motifs from the existing themes, particularly Godzilla’s theme. It’s the same thing that happened in Godzilla vs. Kong. I guess part of that might be Toho’s fault. They do own the rights to the music after all and I’d imagine it’s a pain acquiring said rights.
As for Godzilla himself, he’s once again relegated to the sidelines. He has screen time don’t get me wrong, but I feel like he’s off in this movie. This may sound weird, but for some reason I found Godzilla’s roar to be slightly altered in this movie, relegated to mostly growl noises. I could be wrong, I am a weird person; it felt like they were trying to use his roar, but couldn’t due to licensing which shouldn’t happen. Could be my first time viewing so I don’t know. Linkara once said the cardinal sin of any team up crossover is having one team look better than the other instead of having them be equals. Both this and GVK put the spotlight more on Kong and that needs to stop. I like Kong too, don’t get me wrong, he has tons of personality and he’s badass, wielding his battle axe and now power glove. Maybe it’s because of that personality that makes him more of an interesting character to follow. But then again if you put all the focus on Kong, why have Godzilla in the first place. It feels like they wanted to do a more Kong focused movie and had to include Godzilla because of contract obligations. I could be wrong.
Another thing that bugged me was the jittery camera for the fights. It felt like they couldn’t focus on one thing or another. And much like Godzilla vs. Kong, the kaiju, especially Godzilla, seem to be bouncing when they walk or ran into battle. Besides that I did enjoy the fights overall. My favorite would have to be Kong Vs. Skar King. I get the distinct impression Kong is much more use to fighting creatures with a lower IQ than himself, but here he’s fighting something on his level with more battle experience.
The human characters were okay but ultimately there.
For a Monsterverse movie, it’s not the worst nor the best. As I’ve said before, or mentioned it numerous times, King of the Monsters 2019 is both my favorite Godzilla movie of all time and my favorite Monsterverse movie because it did everything right for me: reinvigorate a franchise, call backs to the original films, bring old monsters into a new era, bring back old theme songs, have an cover of Blue Oyster Cult’s Godzilla and ultimately be a love letter to a franchise over 65 years old. As an anniversary movie it was breath taking, as a Godzilla film, it was a success. Not saying it’s perfect, but honestly, G:KOTM will always have a special place in my heart.
As for Godzilla X Kong the New Empire, it’s okay. A fun monster movie with not so much in way of story, but works overall. I feel like one of the critics who compared it to Minus One, so I apologize if I did. Not sure where the franchise will go. My hopes are as long as there’s Godzilla, I’ll be heading to the movies to see it.
Thank you for reading.
See you Space Cowboy!
