Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) Movie Review
Synopsis:
Godzilla and Kong must unite against an undiscovered threat in Hollow Earth. This battle threatens to challenge Kong and Godzilla’s existence, including humanity’s.
Review:
For context, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is the follow-up film to Godzilla vs. Kong (2021). Director Adam Wingard also returns.
In this film, he unites Kong and Godzilla against Scar King and his pet, Shimo. Though this had the potential to be entertaining, its execution is lacking.
Aside from Scar King being an orangutan leading an army of other orangutans, there is little else to him. Also, he is not a viable threat to either Godzilla or Kong.
In combat, he is more agile than Kong, though that is the extent of it. Otherwise, he uses Shimo (an ice version of Godzilla) to win fights for him.
In the final battle, he becomes nothing more than a pinball tossed around by Godzilla and Kong. Scar King is by far the MonsterVerse’s weakest threat yet.
One would expect the action in a MonsterVerse film to be at least good.
Most of The New Empire’s action sequences lack impact and personality. This film’s action is also weightless, which makes it less entertaining.
As a whole, there are some good visuals in The New Empire. These complement the action to a decent effect.
Despite this, the weightless motions of each monster detract from the film’s enjoyment.
Furthermore, the visual effects are less detailed compared to the other MonsterVerse films.
This should not be a surprise considering that The New Empire has the lowest budget of all MonsterVerse films so far.
As with all other MonsterVerse films, the humans are the weakest element of The New Empire. They lack personality, defined by standard traits.
For context, Rebecca Hall returns as Dr Ilene Andrews, and so does Kaylee Hottle’s Jia. Rebecca Hall has little to do, despite a decent performance.
Kaylee Hottle gives more emotion to her character than most other performers.
Despite this, her character is nothing more than a plot device.
As an example, she has this almost telepathic ability to sense future events that will occur.
This film attempts to justify this by stating that this is due to her link to the Iwi tribe.
It is a contrived idea that allows the characters to do what the plot requires. As a result, it impacts the film’s already average plot.
Making a return to this film is Brian Tyree Henry’s Bernie Hayes.
All Bernie Hayes does is react to events happening onscreen through unfunny jokes. Though it is clear that the actor is enjoying himself, his character is redundant.
A new character in this film is Trapper, portrayed by Dan Stevens.
His character provides Kong with several enhancements throughout the film. Each of these is through the magic of plot armor or convenience.
Dan Stevens is the most charismatic presence in the film, though that is a low bar to pass.
Returning to compose this film’s score is Tom Holkenborg.
As with his Godzilla vs. Kong score, Holkenborg’s music complements the action sequences.
Aside from this, Holkenborg does little to build on his score from the previous film.
Conclusion:
As a whole, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is the weakest MonsterVerse film yet. Its main threat, Scar King, is not much of a threat at all.
His action scenes are weightless, treated as a pinball for Godzilla and Kong to toss around.
When he is not getting tossed around, he uses his pet, Shimo, to fight for him.
Most of The New Empire’s action lacks impact, with a select few scenes being entertaining.
Considering The New Empire had the lowest budget for a MonsterVerse film, its visuals and CGI are inconsistent.
Despite this, some sequences have good visuals to complement the action.
As expected, this film’s characters do little to contribute to the proceedings.
Most lack presence or tell unfunny jokes. Others exist to be plot devices.
Tom Holkenborg’s score provides some entertainment during the action. Otherwise, it contributes very little to the film.
Even for the most die-hard MonsterVerse fans, Godzilla vs. Kong: The New Empire may disappoint.
Sam’s Action Reaction score:
Characters - 5/10
Story - 5/10
Action - 6/10
CGI and visuals - 6.5/10
Soundtrack - 6/10
Overall score: 5.7 out of 10
