Following the events of Godzilla vs. Kong, two of the world’s favorite monster heroes are back for a new fight in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire from Warner Brothers.
Godzilla vs Kong introduced many of us to the theory of Hollow Earth which has been around since, I believe, the 1950s. It was an absolutely fascinating subject to deep dive on and that film explained it in a way that made it actually make sense. Warner Brothers has taken us back to Hollow Earth with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Kong is believed to be the last of his kind and being a social creature is very lonely. While he remains there, Godzilla protects the surface world from threats and if Kong were to return would become very territorial and unleash hell on the ape.
A spike in interference signals a request for help and some of our returning heroes from the previous film decide to travel back to Hollow Earth and look for who or what is putting out the signal that they believe is an SOS. The transition between the outer Earth and the Hollow is an interesting effect that can tear the psyche and done with some fantastic visuals.
The film is listed as an Action-Adventure story but has some heartfelt moments between some of the characters. The visual effects are absolutely stunning and if you’re watching just for the destruction, I’m happy to report there is a TON of it. Even a little monster-dental work thrown in early on. The story is well written, leaning on the lore of the previous films and tying them all together quite nicely. The characters were fun with some quality portrayals even though the dialogue is a little campy at times, as I expected with this type of film. Overall I thought it was the best of the four films in the series (including Kong Island) and had a great time watching it.
