Movie Review: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

I’m a sucker for a Godzilla movie and don’t really expect much from them to satisfy me, but with this latest entry it really feels like the franchise, at least in its American iteration, has almost completely lost the plot. While the latest Japanese movies featuring the monster have returned to a more serious (and satisfying) mode of storytelling, here in the US they are getting sillier and sillier. That actually worked for me in the last entry, but this time around I was largely unimpressed.

The world has come to accept the existence of “Titans” such as Godzilla and King Kong and the Hollow Earth beneath us that is teeming with bizarre life forms. The Monarch organization attempts to keep the creatures and humanity safe from each other, but for obvious reasons can only do so much. Kong is living a lonely life in the Hollow Earth, apparently the last of his species, when a sinkhole opens up exposing that there is in fact another realm beneath his own where a tribe of his kin are living under the rule of the tyrannical Skar King. Kong doesn’t really vibe with his style, and with the help of a very cute juvenile giant ape plots to bring him down.

For reasons that are nonsensical at best, a group of humans from Monarch descend into the Hollow Earth comprised of Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), her adopted daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle) who is presumably the last of the Iwi people, veterinarian Trapper (Dan Stevens), and podcaster Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry). It is genuinely baffling why a group like Monarch would ever allow this assemblage to descend into such dangerous territory, let alone why a mother would take her young daughter into it, but this is very much the sort of movie that doesn’t benefit from much, or any, thought.

While down there, our ragtag group discovers that a tribe of Iwi have been living in the jungles of the Hollow Earth, hidden by a camouflaging cocoon made of Mothra’s silk. They have been sending messages to the surface in order to awaken Godzilla so that he can help with the growing threat to themselves and the surface posed by Skar. Kong also attempts to enlist the giant lizard, but it is ultimately Jia who must awaken Mothra in order to convince him to join the fight. She is unfortunately not made to sing a song to do so.

If all of this sounds like interminable nonsense it also feels like it while you’re watching the movie. Whereas the Hidden Earth felt like a silly but intriguing idea last time around, staging the majority of this movie down there makes it begin to lose some of its luster. No one in the cast does a bad job, and Dan Stevens even appears to be having a lot of fun with his role, but the human characters are thinly developed even by this franchise’s usual standards and for some reason we are made to spend a lot of time with them. Hayes’ presence in particular begins to grate, as the character’s attempts at comic relief almost never land and he contributes nothing to the actual plot, which feels like a waste of such a solid actor.

It’s not all bad, as the fights between the Titans are satisfying if sometimes hard to follow. The final battle in particular is a lot of fun, as we watch Kong, Godzilla, and Mothra battle out with Skar, his minions, and his ice-breathing dragon Shimo, first in zero gravity (don’t ask) and then through the streets of Rio de Janeiro. The visual effects look great throughout, without any of the cheap looking moments that plague some recent blockbusters, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the sound design nabs an Academy Award nomination in 2025. It’s just a shame the entire film couldn’t be as entertaining as those last 20 minutes or so. ★★