While it had it flaws, it put me in a place like watching King Kong vs. Godzilla for the first time. Going into the sequel, Godzilla X Kong If The New Empire had been made by the original team or had drawn as heavily on the characters’ emotions as The Godfather, I was hoping the film could do that for me.
The film again directed by Adam Wingard and the plot unfolds the story of Kong in Hollow Earth what he finds the last of Kong himself and the world comes to know of another menace which Kong cannot fight alone.
New Empire is first of all a King Kong movie as far as I could make out, and Godzilla felt somewhat shoehorned in at times.
He is not present in the movie until a point almost the climax where he has to unite with Kong for the fight.
Fortunately, Kong makes up for Godzilla’s screen time, what is more, The New Empire seems to give more time to the monsters than in any previous film in the Monsterverse, which was what I wanted.
Another thing I wanted was getting more screentime for Jia (Kaylee Hottle).
In my review of Godzilla vs Kong, I said I wanted more of her because, outside of Brian, she was the only pleasant human character in the whole movie.
Well, I got my wish in The New Empire, with the human storyline solely based on her.
This left the humans much more appealing than in previous Monsterverse films and the cast of Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, and Dan Stevens had more of an impact.
By the third act the monster and human stories are intertwined and there is a large spectral battle of the monsters which while being visually entertaining made me a tad uncomfortable.
Another issue was that, well, this film came after Godzilla: Minus One.
Admittedly this is more a problem of who they chose to follow it with rather than a problem the movie brought upon itself, but it felt like Godzilla went from one of the greatest films of that franchise to a cartoonish big dumb action movie.
However, this only lessened my appreciation with the film in a way. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a relatively fitting entry in the Monsterverse.
Kong storyline is good, the humans are much more tolerable, actually the last fight is a little questionable by its unspoken collateral but yeah it’s pretty fun. Looking forward for the next installment from the Monsterverse.
Another issue was that, well, this film came after Godzilla: Minus One. Admittedly this is more a problem of who they chose to follow it with rather than a problem the movie brought upon itself, but it felt like Godzilla went from one of the greatest films of that franchise to a cartoonish big dumb action movie.
However, this only lessened my appreciation with the film in a way. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a relatively fitting entry in the Monsterverse. Kong storyline is good, the humans are much more tolerable, actually the last fight is a little questionable by its unspoken collateral but yeah it’s pretty fun. Looking forward for the next installment from the Monsterverse.
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