Films for Breakfast

Outside of Marvel, one of the only franchises that has successfully launched and sustained an ongoing cinematic universe is that of Warner Bros’ Monsterverse, which first started with Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla back in 2014 and found expansion within its direct sequel King of the Monsters in 2019 and Kong: Skull Island in 2017. Shortly after the COVID-19 vaccine was distributed to the public and theaters were slowly reopening across the globe, the franchise culminated with Godzilla vs. Kong in 2021 as Warner Brothers. had the film as a casualty in its day-and-date release with its-then streaming service HBO Max. Despite the ongoing pandemic and the film being widely accessible online, Godzilla vs Kong surprised everyone and make $470 million worldwide. Not only was this proof of audience interest in this interpretation of the characters, but it warranted even further development of the cinematic universe as a whole.

With the massive success of Godzilla vs Kong, it should come as no surprise that director Adam Wingard is back behind the camera to helm its sequel Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Taking place after the explosive finale of Godzilla vs Kong, The New Empire finds Kong and Godzilla reluctantly working together against a colossal and undiscovered threat hidden within our world, challenging both their existence and our own. The film also finds the return of some cast members like Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, and Kaylee Hottle – although newcomer to the franchise Dan Stevens is a big standout as Trapper, who gets a lot of the best comedic relief and is all-together one of the best human characters in the Monsterverse thus far.

Despite all the lore and world-building, (which I actually have come to admire and find myself invested in after the universe expanded with the surprisingly great Monarch: Legacy of Monsters show on Apple TV) the reason why audiences continue to flock to these movies is to simply see our favorite Titans duke it out on the silver screen. And in that regard? Adam Wingard absolutely nails it once again. The brawls in the film are not only immensely satisfying, but it feels like with Godzilla x Kong, these films have finally cracked the formula for balancing out story and humans with a primary focus on the Titans and the spectacle around them. One of my main complaints with King of the Monsters back in 2019 was that it had no sense of pace and that it took far too long to get us back into the action after the dry spells of the central plot, but thankfully The New Empire has a perfect understanding of how frequently Kong and Godzilla need to be on screen and incorporated into the central story.

Action aside, a lot of the technical elements of the film truly impressed me as well – from a pure visual standpoint, the film once again fuses a very colorful aesthetic just like Godzilla vs Kong did, and the way the film visualizes Hollow Earth makes it feel so tangible and lived-in. There’s a sequence early in the film where Dan Steven’s character Trapper has to look at one of Kong’s teeth, and the sheer detail on the close-ups of Kong are really impressive. At this point in the franchise, both he and Godzilla are so expressive and there are so many small details within their designs and animations that go a long way in making them feel like more than just CGI characters but actual leads of the story that are as believable as giant Titans can possibly be.

I was lucky enough to screen the film in IMAX – I typically leave this out of the review unless I find myself really impressed with the experience and find it to go hand and hand with my enjoyment of a film, and in the case of The New Empire, it has a truly astounding effect on the might of the experience. I found myself incredibly immersed and dazzled by the way Wingard utilizes the full ability of IMAX cameras to show the scale of not only the Kong, Godzilla, and the rest of the Titans but as well as the world of Hollow Earth. A lot of films released in IMAX have limited screentime, if any, for the full IMAX aspect ratio that they shoot on – but The New Empire is almost exclusively, fully in the format anytime action or spectacle is being presented. I don’t think it’s essential to whether or not you enjoy the film, but it’s one of the best IMAX experiences I’ve had in a while, and I truly believe it’s worth the extra buck for anyone who is contemplating whether or not it’s worthwhile.

Aside from the giant spectacle and enthralling action sequences, there is quite a bit of worldbuilding, story mechanics, and character development at play here. On the one hand, I was actually entertained by the group dynamic between Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, and Dan Stevens when it was played for laughs, and I was especially into the world-building of Hollow Earth and the underlying mythos of the origins of the Titans that the film tries to fit into the already-established lore. On the other hand, there are a few scenes in the middle section of the film where it goes really heavy into character drama with Rebecca Hall and Kaylee Hottle’s characters, and in turn with that, also tries to overexplain Hollow Earth and connect humans to the origin of that story as well. While it serves for some interesting sequences at the end, I thought a lot of these exposition moments were a bit of a drag and hindered the otherwise nice momentum and pacing that the rest of the film had established and kept going.

For whatever its worth, despite some rocky human drama and pacing issues here and there, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is far from the worst offender of these issues in the franchise and actually, ultimately, does one of the better jobs at incorporating humans into one of these films. At the end of the day, everyone is here to see Godzilla and Kong throw down with other Titans and in that regard, the film more than delivers. I’ve been a lifelong fan of both of these characters, and it’s absolutely delightful to see them fight side by side on such a massive and colorful scale. It’s far from perfect as a film, but in terms of being a pure adrenaline experience, it’s hard to imagine any fans of the Monsterverse being anything less than enthralled and entertained by this one.

3.5/5