REVIEW — “Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire”

The fifth entry in Legendary Picture’s Monsterverse, the raucous and rampaging Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire finally delivers the ultimate Titan Tag Team.

Starting “somewhere in Hollow Earth,” the Kong-centric film picks up soon after the events of 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong. There, we find our battle-scarred gorilla King making his way through the jungle and going through the motions. He is lonely, going grey, and in need of serious dental work. Meanwhile, Godzilla is on Earth’s surface juicing up on radiation and battling menacing Titans (while casually destroying famous cities and landmarks, like Rome’s Colosseum and the pyramids in Cairo).

Tracking both Kaiju are human scientist Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) and her adopted Iwe daughter, Jia (Kaylee Hottle), a young Skull Island native who maintains a deep connection with Kong from the pervious film. After discovering a mysterious distress signal from Hollow Earth, Andrews recruits paranoid podcaster Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry) and dashing veterinarian Trapper (Dan Stevens) to venture with them deep within the planet to uncover a hidden threat that could challenge their very existence.

While each actor adds a passable amount of heart, humor, and human element to the story, their characters are really unnecessary and serve as nothing more than expository machines (Hall and Hottle) that occasionally provide light comic relief (Henry and Stevens). They’re unimportant and mostly get in the way or distract from the real stars of the show: Godzilla and King Kong.

Godzilla is somewhat sidelined this round, which is fair considering the large lizard has enjoyed two solo pictures (2014’s Godzilla and 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters) to Kong’s one (2017’s Kong: Skull Island). As a result, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire is really more of a King Kong film. Which is good because the character is clearly the more endearing and emotive of the two Titans.

The film really shows its teeth when the focus is on Kong and his power struggle against the brutal Skar King and his ape minions in a hellish subterranean landscape. Although I could have done without the addition of Kong’s cartoonish baby sidekick, Suko, Kong’s solo scenes are the film’s most dynamic, entertaining, and engaging.

The film builds toward an epic final battle that finally sees the two colossal foes team up to save the day. However, like a Transformers movie, the explosive showdown is often eclipsed by overly ambitious special effects and noisy, needless destruction. The film’s saving grace is its stellar synth score punctuated by awesomely retro needle drops like Golden Earring’s “Twilight Zone,” KISS’ “I Was Made For Lovin’ You,” and Loverboy’s “Turn Me Loose,” among others.

Returning to the director’s chair, Adam Wingard delivers a loud and vibrant action adventure that delves further into the histories of the infamous Titans, their origins, and the mysteries of Skull Island and Hollow Earth. However, what Wingard really delivers is a solid argument for a human and dialogue-free King King movie that really gets to the heart of the legendary beast. 3/5

Rated PG-13 with a running time of 1 hours, 55 minutes, Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire opens in theaters March 29, 2024.