Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

2 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Ape Together

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Par for the course in the MonsterVerse series, the monsters in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire have more personality than the silly humans, but at least watching them battle and smash things has some visceral entertainment value.

After the events of Godzilla vs. Kong, peace has been established, with Kong living in the subterranean realm Hollow Earth and Godzilla roaming the surface world. Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) keeps tabs on them both, while raising young Jia (Kaylee Hottle), the last surviving Iwi from Skull Island.

Suddenly, Kong returns to the surface with a toothache. Dr. Andrews calls in veterinarian Trapper (Dan Stevens) to help. Meanwhile, Godzilla stirs, and begins traveling the world, absorbing enormous amounts of power. Dr. Andrews, Jia, Trapper, monster podcaster Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) and pilot Mikael (Alex Ferns) accompany Kong back to Hollow Earth.

There, Kong finally discovers a tribe of apes like himself, while the humans stumble upon evidence of an ancient civilization of Iwi. Everything leads up to a major showdown against an evil ape leader; to defeat him, Godzilla and Kong must bury the hatchet and work together.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has the task of finding some way of getting the two big guys to join forces, and it's a convoluted journey, with so many steps — including a "chosen one" and prophecy — that the humans are employed merely as exposition machines, required to keep explaining the plot every time the camera points at them.

As such, the characters are reduced to familiar cardboard cutout types. Henry has the hardest job, whipping back and forth between being a nerd who is both excited about discovering all this monster stuff, and a whimpering coward, like something right out of an old Abbott & Costello movie.

But, admittedly, the Hollow Earth design is truly gorgeous, and the monster fights (which include some new guest stars) land with a concrete impact. Truthfully, the computer-generated characters are so much better at telling the story, with their wordless gestures and expressions, that Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire might have been better without any humans at all.

Its worst problem, to be fair, is that it arrives just months after the Oscar-winner Godzilla: Minus One, which was made for around a tenth of the cost of this one, and is certainly ten times better. There's more to monster movies than smashing.