Godzilla x Kong The New Empire is directed by Adam Wingard and is the fifth in the MonsterVerse franchise. It features Godzilla, Kong, and some new characters uniting to face a threat hidden deep within the planet.
This movie was an absurdly fun ride. The battles are monolithic, the visuals are bombastic, and some of the fight scenes are almost comically insane. Yeah, it sticks to a pretty simple narrative that lacks momentum at times, but the choice to spend most of its runtime with the monsters instead of the human characters is a deliberate one that lots of people will enjoy for the action, the spectacle and the immersion.
At its best moments, this movie knows how to deliver pure fun on a huge scale.
In terms of story, I liked the sweeping feeling this movie has. It takes place over many different locations across the entire planet, showing different Monarch bases with agents who track the monsters, and this gives the movie a really fast and exciting pace.
I think I counted like a dozen or so title card drops where you’re just dropped into a new location accompanied by some spectacular 80s needled tops. This movie exists in a reality where monsters just roam the earth in everyday life and the film has some fun commentary on this absurd reality including some good comedic moments.
The second act drags a little when it comes to exploring Kong’s homeland and feels repetitive after long stretches of no dialogue — and then to make up for this it relies on quite a bit of exposition to fill you in on the history of what’s happening. However, once the third act begins, the pace picks up, and everything that it’s been working towards pays off in a big way.
The story has some nice human elements as well, with an adoptive mother-daughter story at its emotional core. And some hilarious performances from the supporting cast which bring much needed levity to the film.
I think Wingard is also talented at showing scale on the screen. It’s quite difficult to make clear just how big these creatures are supposed to be when they’re fighting monsters who are the same size as them. But he uses buildings, and natural landscapes and other elements to give you a scale comparison that actually makes these characters feel as large as they are.
People that want to be immersed in the world of the Monsterverse, will enjoy this movie the movie the most. There are multiple 10-minute long stretches where you’re just placed in Godzilla or Kong’s homeland and there are no human characters — it’s just monsters, in this tropical exotic landscape fighting or communicating and that does feel transportative.
So if you see this movie, see it for the action, and see it for the spectacle.
My advice? Just strap in and enjoy the ride