GODZILLA x KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE is the fifth of the “Monsterverse” movies, and to me the best one. Don’t get me wrong, I kinda liked the attempt at a serious Spielbergian approach in GODZILLA, and the more fun and colorful (but weirdly nostalgic for Vietnam War imagery?) take of KONG: SKULL ISLAND, and the Hesei nightmare atmosphere of GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS, but my previous favorite was GODZILLA VS. KONG, because it finally went headlong into having cool giant monster fights where you’re still in awe but you get to see what’s going on.
GxK is the first one with a returning director (Adam Wingard, YOU’RE NEXT) and he’s able to hit the ground running and improve on GvK with a crazier mythology and a better-integrated human story. I had a big smile on my face pretty much the whole time, without having to say “Well, too bad they were just traveling in that tunnel for a third of the movie.” My only real complaint is that the great Brian Tyree Henry (WIDOWS) still has a dumb one-joke character to play – a Roland Emmerich type “funny conspiracy guy” updated to have a podcast and a Discord – but he not only gets some laughs but gets to be around the actual monsters this time instead of trapped in a needless b-plot.
That’s really the key to this one. I still think there could be a great only-monsters kaiju epic, but if you ever believed the myth that the humans don’t matter in this genre then hopefully you stopped talking that nonsense after you saw GODZILLA MINUS ONE. No Monsterverse movie has been half as moving as that one, but I do respect the series’ tradition of having ridiculously stacked, overqualified casts. You could go down the Monsterverse credits and cross out all the Oscar nominees (Ken Watanabe, Juliette Binoche, Bryan Cranston, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, Samuel L. Jackson, John C. Reilly, Vera Farmiga, Bryan Tyree Henry, Demian Bichir, plus winner Brie Larson) and the leftovers would still make an all-star cast of hot-shit up-and-comers, beloved TV veterans, etc.
I like that. If the humans in these movies are our offering to the gods we better give them our best, you know?
The problem is if you got Bradley Whitford in the war room or Charles Dance in a lab or whatever you’re gonna feel obligated to make it feel worth their time, give them shit to say, and keep cutting back to them. GxK finally broke that curse. It has its stars together in one group, on an expedition into the Hollow Earth, and they are the story. If Wingard needs to cut to someone else to explain that Godzilla is headed toward Cairo or whatever it’s not gonna be a big sweeping scene involving two Emmy winners as Dr. Jane Whosit and Admiral William H.H. Whatsit, it’s just gonna be one straight forward sentence from Kevin Copeland (Power Rangers Beast Morphers) as “Submarine Commander,” or Anthony Brandon Wong (Ghost from THE MATRIX RELOADED) as “Talk Show Anchor” or Vincent Gorce (“SWAT team member,” CHAMELEON 3: DARK ANGEL) as “Monarch Specialist.” It’s economical, and it’s usually information I was looking for. You see it and realize oh yeah, that’s why Toho does it that way. It’s better. We’re catching up. America is on the move.
We noted at the time how GODZILLA VS. KONG took inspiration from LETHAL WEAPON and other action movies. This time Kong gets a beautiful I’m Too Old For This Shit introduction. A battle with a herd of warthog things requires tearing one in half above his head, covering himself in its guts as a show of dominance. After he scares them away he exasperatedly wipes some off, sighs, takes a solemn shower in a waterfall, sits brooding on a cliff. And there are many shots of his scars, like that part where the ex-military guy has to take his shirt off for some reason, and the woman he just met (or at least the camera) notices the record of past battles carved into his flesh.
After his versus battle Kong took the Hollow Earth as his territory, while Godzilla remains on the surface, monitored by the Monarch agency, including Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall, THE GIFT, RESURRECTION), who argues that he saves us alot of trouble by defeating other Titans when they appear. We get a taste when big G surfaces in Rome, batters a lobster thing into green pulp, then curls up for a nap inside the Colosseum. (He’s earned it.)
I remembered Jia (Kaylee Hottle), Ilene’s adopted daughter who is Deaf and speaks with Kong in ASL. I didn’t remember she was the last of the Iwi tribe, and then the movie politely reminded me that the Iwi tribe were the human inhabitants of Skull Island. Thank you, movie. Jia is having trouble in school because of visions, trances and drawing a strange symbol. Unable to get Monarch to believe in mystical shit, Ilene turns to kaiju conspiracy podcaster Bernie Hayes (Henry), who’s bitter about not getting any credit for saving the world last time. He goes along for more evidence, clout and access.
There’s a new character, Trapper, played by Dan Stevens, who starred in Wingard’s THE GUEST, so that makes him his Bruce Campbell. Trapper is a kaiju veterinarian and he wears a Hawaiian shirt, cinematic code for a lovable wildman. When Kong comes crawling out of the portal with a toothache Trapper sedates him, yanks the tooth out with cables, and replaces it with metal. Then they all hop on a drop ship together to investigate why an outpost in the Hollow Earth isn’t responding to calls, where they discover the threat that will require Godzilla to x with Kong to save the planet.
I would not place this group high in the rankings of memorable protagonists for this type of blockbuster, but I enjoy their company. Hall is such a great actress who’s been knocking complicated, unhinged characters out of the park recently, but it’s still fun to see her look very serious and talk about what Godzilla is thinking. Her earnestness about helping Kong, saving the human race and being a good foster mother balances Henry and Stevens being sillier. Jia is the heart of the movie, and benefits from having the most interesting friends, and speaking to them with sign language or telepathy. I like that both at school (in her uniform) and on the expedition (in a graffiti t-shirt) she wears a headband – integrating, but honoring her heritage. And (spoiler) she’s the first Godzilla character I can think of to have a special connection with two different monsters – first Kong, now Mothra. So accomplished, and not even old enough to vote.
(I guess if I have a complaint besides the character of Bernie it’s that Monsterverse Mothra is all head and legs, very little wings, like they’re ashamed of her beauty. But no big deal here, it’s basically a guest appearance.)
Much of the Hollow Earth is unexplored, even by Kong. Wandering into a sinkhole, Kong encounters a young ape, referred to once by Bernie as “Mini-Kong,” but officially named Suko. When I saw him in the trailer, looking up at Kong with his scared eyes, I did not expect that in this scene he would be bait for two adult apes to jump Kong, and then Kong would swing him around by the arm, bashing the motherfuckers with him like he’s a sock full of quarters. I would’ve accepted “cute baby Kong” but “little fucker who Kong immediately uses as a weapon” is obviously better. They’ll get stuck together and warm to each other over time (another classic action movie arc) but not before the kid tries to kill him a couple times. It’s adorable.
Like last time, the story follows Kong the most, with Godzilla an ominous threat instinctively headed this way, someone we get to anticipate until his time to shine (with radiation, now pink, because he’s evolving). Meanwhile Kong gets in a knife fight, hunts a sea monster, uses a giant rib cage as a rickety rope bridge, and has his entire world view upended. He and his friend Jia both learn that they are not in fact the last of their people. Further into the Hollow Earth the big guy is amazed to find a whole bunch of apes like him, but as he gets closer he sees how weak and ragged they are, forced into some kind of slave labor by the Skar King, an ape tyrant who was locked down here in ancient times to prevent him from conquering the surface world.
Who stopped him that time? Godzilla. King of the Monsters isn’t just a title, it’s a responsibility. I don’t know if Kong is aware of what an o.g. Godzilla is. He goes way back. There are cave carvings.
The prisoners are watched over and abused by healthier, burlier overseer apes. Kong sees them beating a guy, helps him up, and knocks out the guard with one punch. Some Billy Jack shit. An amazing touch is that one of the slaves is a fuckin snitch! He runs to tell on Kong, and the guards at first don’t understand and knock him on his ass. He still gets up and goes through with tattling.
Maybe the movie’s biggest innovation is having a villainous kaiju who we can truly despise. You know, Ghidorah’s an asshole, but he’s cool as fuck. Maybe we root against him, but we like him. He’s gold, and has three heads! This fucking Skar King though – as soon as you see the lanky motherfucker lounging on his throne, getting up and waggling around, you’re like “fuck this guy.” And he’s a slavedriver! And a bully! When he sees Kong he immediately zeroes in on his metal tooth, points at it and laughs, pressures the others to fake laugh at his joke.
And then you see that he wears a sash made out of a spinal column that also acts as a whip. And that he keeps a Godzilla-like monster with freeze breath named Shimo chained up. And when he decides to invade the earth he rides on Shimo’s back, standing up and doing vainglorious poses like he’s already having his victory parade. The absolute worst.
The Hollow Earth is fun – lots of weird creatures, the gimmick of the camera flipping between the two different perspectives of up and down never gets old, and we even get an zero gravity kaiju battle – but this is also a Godzilla movie, so we get more Titan battles wrecking international landmarks. It’s funny that Rome has been fucked up in FAST X, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING and now GxK. When they showed the Christ the Redeemer statue I thought “oh no, the poor people of Brazil,” but when I realized tourists at a resort were gonna bear the brunt of it I felt a little better.
Oh yeah, the other thing is that Kong hurts his hand so Trapper gives him a power glove. And he has fun using it. HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN director Jason Eisner says he texted Wingard a photo of Fisto from Masters of the Universe, suggesting the idea, and whether or not that’s the real origin it sums up the philosophy well. Wouldn’t this be cool and absurd? Yes. So they did it.
This is also a movie where Godzilla suplexes Kong. I don’t know how the fuck a guy with giant spikes on his back is willing to drop straight onto his back, but my boy does it. It’s also a movie where Kong throws Skar King and Godzilla whips him with his tail. We get monster team work. We get monsters switching sides. We get monsters being petted like good boys. There are many things I need in life, and these are some of them.
Why are kaiju movies so appealing? I’ve been thinking about it, and this is what I came up with. I think it’s a trifecta of factors. There is the simple love of monsters – Frankenstein, Alien, gremlins, Predator – many of us, from birth, can’t help but get excited about strange creatures, especially when they’re fighting each other. Then you put these particular strange creatures at a massive scale, swatting away fighter jets like mosquitoes, stepping over civilization’s greatest achievements like litter on a sidewalk, so there is an awe, a majesty. They are forces of nature turned into flesh. Gods. They make it easy to believe in ancient legends and prophecies and shit, because it’s right there, we’re looking at it – the thing that makes no sense but came before us and after us, is bigger than us both literally and figuratively, and just smashed the pyramids.
And then at the same time that they are monsters and gods, they are animals. Just like you would with your dog or cat or a cute video from the zoo, you look at Godzilla and Kong and you anthropomorphize them. You ascribe to them thoughts and emotions that might be there, might not be. You don’t expect anything sophisticated from them, so you give them great credit for seeming to have any personality relatable to a human. And if two different species act like they’re friends, running around having fun together? Oh, man. Forget about it. So they’re easy to love.
Obviously there are individuals on this earth who have formed in such a way that they lost those primal instincts, or never had them, so watching giant monsters slap the fuck out of each other is not a high priority for them. They are not necessarily gonna expend the effort to see a movie like this, and I wish them well doing whatever the other things are that people do with their time (I am not familiar). If they are only gonna give a chance to one recent giant monster movie, obviously I would tell them to go for GODZILLA MINUS ONE.
But if you’re like me, and you get giddy for the exploits of monster/god/animals, sometimes with robotic enhancements, then GODZILLA x KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE is a must-see.
previous Monsterverse reviews:
GODZILLA (2014)
KONG: SKULL ISLAND (2017)
GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS (2019)
GODZILLA VS. KONG (2021)
my slow chronological viewing of the original Godzilla and Gamera movies, so far:
GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN
KING KONG VS. GODZILLA
MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA
GHIDORAH, THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER
GAMERA, THE GIANT MONSTER
INVASION OF ASTRO-MONSTER
GAMERA VS. BARUGON
other:
MOTHRA
KING KONG ESCAPES
GODZILLA (1998)
GODZILLA FINAL WARS
KING KONG (2005)
SHIN GODZILLA
GODZILLA MINUS ONE
April 4th, 2024 at 8:03 pm
It’s amusing how fast these things went from “We gonna give Godzilla his dignity back and make a serious movie that is so serious that we even cut away from Godzilla doing cool Godzilla stuff until the finale, because JAWS and power of imagination and bla and bloop” to “King Kong wears a cyberglove!”