Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)
Bow to your new king.
The American adventure of monkey and lizard continues again. Admittedly, I've always preferred lizard to monkey, but they rather quickly became a set deal in the “verse” - as everything franchising has to contain over here – so it appears either we get both or none. Will one get more show time than the other? Will we get more big fights or more humans? Will the humans that are there be fun or a load of monkey poo? Find out by changing a single letter, tonight we watch Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.
Monkey showers and lizard powers, this one picks up after the last with the King down in the hollow part of Earth and our most kitten-like Zilla up top bumping things around and sleeping in roman stadiums. Kong is lonely, down there, still as ever looking for his family if they might exist. Godzilla is leveling just as much city as he is rival monsters who have the gall to exist on Zilla's planet. Humans are keeping tabs on both, but the ones down there with Kong keep having some anomalies and weird stuff happening – and it isn't long until a new area of the hollow is found and a new big bad appears – and believe it or not, it might just be an evil monkey with a weapon. Will our two hero Kaiju be able to team up and work together to take on the new foe? What other secrets await everyone in the new level that was unlocked? Will you care more or less about the human characters?
We get some returning folks for the humans, but we also get a few new folks to enjoy the presence of. It is somewhat nice to not be repeating the people versus people stories that have come up a few different times already, That being said, it isn't like every side character is going to feel super interesting or impactful. A few folks may be disappointed by some of the folks who are returning for this one – but they do all still do a good job if you ask me. It's not a spat of folks phoning it in – it's just if you don't like the character (like resident conspiracy theory podcast guy), then I'm sure it'll lower your fun a bit. Still, actors do a good job even if that job might seem a bit wack-a-doodles or overly serious depending on the character. We also continue getting some more lively action out of the monsters in this one – it adds some sass to them without changing an absolute ton – although it's fair to say you'll get more out of facial expressions on our ginormous monkey then Godzilla.
Characters exist, and most are either what you remember before, or something suitably ridiculous and over the top – like our veterinarian character. It mostly feels like the goal here is fun, and in turn most the characters aren't exactly blasting out deep story – but they get enough in most situations that at least the main characters feel like they have something together in the chemistry department through the funny stuff and the more serious bits. I would say it's done enough to keep you interested if you aren't totally sold on the giant monsters, but it also doesn't feel like it gets in the way if you are here for the giant monsters.
Can’t stop the signal.
Audio here is fun. I love me some synths, and this thing sounds like a hot Miami night, and a lot of the picks for normal radio-songs they go after (like Twilight Zone) are stuff that I already like to boot. Balancing is also good, so you won't be fighting to actually hear and understand things as they are getting said amongst carnage or mystery. If it's your jam, you'll have a good time with this sound track – and if it's not your jam it's still doing a fiery job of being upbeat and adding some emotion to the scenes as it wants to. Line deliveries are good – although like I said the characters can be a bit larger than life at times. Other sounds – like our boss roars – still come through sounding great, and probably would benefit better from really kicking sound systems instead of headphones (even really bass-heavy ones like what I use) like I had for the review. Still one of the spots that the theater kicks my home theaters butt.
Effects are great, as they have been for the past ones as well. We get some new monsters, some new attacks – including some ice related stuff – and even some fancy equipment for our big monkey boy. Environments also get to benefit, as we get some wild gravity-wacky stuff with plenty of floating things as well. If you wanted something with some good CG, you have found the right movie for the night. If you really have a thing for only practical effects – well, maybe you won't be as happy about it, but it still looks good and things move pretty darn good as well. There's some pretty good monster fights, with and without fancy special attack effects, and although a good bucket of the monsters is just monkeys and more monkeys, we do still get some variation in there so you at least aren't ever confused as to which one is Kong. As much as I come to these movies for Godzilla instead of Kong, and this movie does play far more with Kong, it does at least provide for a good bulk of monster involvement that isn't just horror movie usage – well and far away from the cutting away every time things are about to “get good” they did in the first entry of this leg of Godzilla.
I feel like this movie could end up being a bit of a mixed take for folks – the fact that two of our main human characters are whimsical goofy especially might not gel with everyone. Part of it might just be if you enjoy the humor style that they bring to the movie – and jokes are always a subjective thing so it's going to heavily depend on the person. It can lead to a bit of a jar tonally when we flip from funny shenanigans team to Godzilla back on the surface supercharging his radioactive battery by eating reactors and beating down other monsters. Of course, there's always some level of thinking in the Godzilla movies – even if it's so simply presented that a kid should be able to get it. Here, the most present feeling would be finding your place and your people, but this Monsterverse leg has always carried a bit of nature and it's power and humanity's place on that chain. Also rather admittedly, rarely is the reason I am watching a Godzilla movie – modern or historical – that I'm here to think on these subjects instead of seeing giant monsters – be it dude in suit or CG beastie – do battle. Most can probably appreciate them putting actual story elements and characters into the movies however, so enjoy what you can get and try not to be too analytical such that it bogs down your enjoyment when you try to figure out how a monster as chonk as this Godzilla can stand up in deep water or not get crushed by it's own weight when it steps onto land.
Monkey slapper
I like this one. The Monsterverse leg as a whole isn't that bad, and I admit I prefer probably the second the most of the batch, but they do a lot of fun stuff with this movie as far as story beats with conniving monkeys and stuff that makes me laugh like smacking one monkey with another monkey. It does quite a bit without there being a lot of talking from the ape side, so even if one doesn't think it's the best looking CG around they manage to get some good acting out of it and it really isn't close to the worst I've seen. Sound is good, but would probably benefit from a nicer sound system, and the visuals are in a very similar place – Yeah, it looks fine and good on my little 20-something inch 4k monitor, but it looked a lot nicer on my projector spitting out 100 something inches of 4k image when I watched it on that (and of course both were better in the theater where more money was put into making it all even better). If you like Godzilla – particularly the 'verse branch of the movies, then you'll enjoy this one.