Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Monster = hurrah Humans = garbage

Another Monster-Verse installment to the collection gave me another reason to visit my cinema. Luckily, I wasn't disappointed, I got everything what I expected which might be summoned by the two equations above.

About humans: If you want to watch the movie at home, don't waste time on humans subplot. It's completely pointless. The dialogues aren't funny or smart. They serve poor exposition which is painfully exhausting to watch. You see the monsters fighting and these "characters" are explaining in between: oh, he is protecting! - Come on, who wrote this? In my opinion if Legendary Studios wants to include humans, they should at least try making them just little interesting or just remove them completely. None of them is doing anything necessary, furthermore whatever they're doing doesn't make any sense. Why the hell are they in the Hollow Earth without protection? One guy is just in a Hawaiian shirt. The amount of dangerous monsters is not alarming, I guess... Paper Boy is filming everything but the British guy in a Hawaiian shirt says something like: It's better to keep it in a secret, this ancient civilization shouldn't be exposed to our world. The girl from Godzilla Vs. Kong (she is from that world and has weird X-Men power (?)) is among modern people, so the world already knows the underground world. What does he want to hide? There is more of this stupidity.

About the monsters: Kong is the lead. His journey is simple, he feels lonely, he wants to have a family of his kind. From the trailers you know, there is more giant apes, so I am happy to see them because I am Team Kong :) I'd want to appreciate the "dialogues" between Kong and this little ginger fella. They don't use words as we do but believe me, these two are more interesting than the humans. You will enjoy it.

Godzilla and the rest are just monsters. Sadly Godzilla isn't intimidating in this movie, his only goal is to gain the pink level of nuclear power and then use it to fight the bad monkey. However, the fight scenes are awesome - this is why we are watching this type of movies, so if you're a fan of giant monsters, I recommend Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire... and don't expect to see raise of "the new empire" in this movie. It's a kinda awkward title generated by ChatGPT.

Lots of Titans fighting. That's why we go to something like this, right?

G X K is about the same for entertainment wise as G vs K, though I'd give the newest entry a slight edge for a couple of reasons. For one, there's a bit less silliness. There's comic relief of course, but it's not out of place or goofy. The 80's throwbacks with the tunes, synths, and vibes were great. And lastly, the Titans were back to being the bad guys instead of humans. I always find it a bore when you watch a movie about monsters fighting, but have to bare through a story of human villains and their idiotic ideologies.

A side note, it's hilarious that these Titans seem to really enjoy having their royal rumbles in the biggest cities on the planet, or while destroying some of the world's most revered structures. Like really guys, you couldn't have thrown down in the middle of the Sahara? More destruction equals more entertainment I suppose. Also, Godzilla just casually murders hundreds if not thousands just walking around from point A to point B. I digress. Go pink Zilla!

Something is very wrong with American film making for some time. Nothing makes sense here, intelligence of people is sharply underestimated (on the level of insult) and nothing really works with story. This last film about monsters shows that while it is trying to draw some long forgotten mythology that works worse than in most cartoons for children under 12. Human characters exist only to remind us of long forgotten cliches and definitely not of characters. Destroying the cultural and historical heritage of mankind is order of a day. And in all that there's nowhere in the site possibility of simple 'just sit back and enjoy the rid'. What an insulting mess of corporate idiocy... That beautiful queen under the surface and some fights do save this experience, but the whole thing is not worth the effort at all...

It serves up a berserk dreamscape with plenty of payoff to please the MonsterVerse faithful. Shame about the human stuff, though. Director Adam Wingard has a lot of fun with textures, colors, and camera work, and he's adept at giving fans the over-the-top monster action that they demand via an imposing new villain. Unfortunately, there's no time to spend on making things make sense or even matter all that much, and what few emotional punches are thrown lack the necessary wind up to connect, save for some very well done moments between Kong and his Hollow Earth kin.

Overall didnt live up and the plot was mediocre at best.

Releasing merely weeks after the critically and commercially acclaimed "Godzilla Minus One" won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects is a boon as well as bane for "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" - while more people are familiar with the behemoth radioactive lizard, there is an undeniable urge to draw comparisons between the two movies. Adam Wingard's second Monsterverse film following 2021's "Godzilla vs Kong" delivers satisfying Titan action, but overall, the film feels like a step back, largely owing to dull and tedious human drama.

Personally, I found "Godzilla vs Kong" to be the best Monsterverse film. It embraced the absurdity and silliness of its premise and made the most of it to deliver one hell of a show, placing the Titans front and centre, while jettisoning any unnecessary human drama. "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" starts off much slower, with the actual plot taking nearly 20 minutes to kick in. Combined with an uptick in uninteresting human drama, this slows down the movie with certain portions feeling boring.

Much like its predecessor, "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" struggles trying to the connect the stories of the two leading titans. Kong is the heart and soul of the movie, with Godzilla largely feeling like an accomplice or sidekick. The first half of the movie is almost entirely about Kong's exploration of Hollow Earth, the subterranean ecosystem where the Titans live. While learning about the mystical world was engaging and intriguing, it lead to a delayed introduction of the villain, leading to the third act feeling slightly rushed and less rewarding compared to the enthralling finale of "Godzilla vs Kong".

The action sequences themselves are a whole lot of fun, with a face off in hollow earth with gravity slightly messed-up being one of my favourites of the entire franchise. The finale in Rio delivers plentiful excitement and fun too.

"Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" is best suited for fans of the Showa era. For Kong fans(like myself), there is a lot to like about the movie, owing to the humanisation of the great ape. The action scenes are fun, colourful and campy, similar to it's predecessor, but an increased focus on human characters and a slower pace make this a slightly underwhelming entry to the Monsterverse.