Godzilla. King Kong. Together again. What else do you need? With the release of the original King Kong in 1933 and Godzilla in 1954, the two movie titans have been thrilling audiences for over 90 years. Now comes Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the fifth film in the latest incarnations of the beloved characters that began with 2014’s Godzilla from director Gareth Edwards. So far, the Legendary Pictures’ saga (featuring characters owned by Toho Co. Ltd. and dubbed the “Monsterverse”) has been a raucous good time. Written by Terry Rosio, Simon Barrett and Jeremy Slater and directed by Adam Wingard (Godzilla vs. Kong), this latest entry is a non-stop thrill ride and a popcorn-chomping blast of cinematic fun.

Picking up where 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong left off, Godzilla has made the surface world his territory, trouncing around cities, fighting bad kaijus, and taking naps in a Roman colosseum. This Godzilla is no villain, but it is wise not to anger him. Let him crush a few buildings here and there, they can be rebuilt.

Having returned to Hollow Earth, Kong (the last member of his species) lives a lonely king’s life, wandering the lands and hunting/fighting an array of creatures. It is clever to see the mighty Kong making use of intricate traps he has crafted to catch his prey.

The best parts of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire are found with Kong in Hollow Earth. Our hero discovers another world where many apes are enslaved by the brutal Skar King. The red-haired, chain-wielding, villain rules over a rock mine, controlling his slaves and his ape army with the ice breathing reptilian kaiju called Shimo. Brimming with barbaric menace and existing as a blend of Planet of the Apes and Conan the Barbarian, these moments are a source of visceral thrills that allow Kong a worthy and dangerous foe.

Along the way, Kong finds a young ape who will become the film’s “Son of Kong”. Their scenes together are crafted with humor and feeling, giving the two characters a relationship that is quite warm and entertaining.

The plot concerns abnormalities in the signals emanating from the center of the Earth. Young Jia (Kaylee Hottle) still bonds with Kong, as she too is the last surviving member of her tribe and is having visions that are connected to the strange signals. For reasons unexplained, scientist Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) discovers the only one who can help figure this all out is Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry).

As for the human characters, Hall, Henry, Hottle, and new meat Dan Stevens do fine and the film can be forgiven for the perfunctory manner in which it presents the human stories. Stevens is particularly fun as a hippie-veterinarian who saves Kong’s infected tooth and joins in the adventures deep within Hollow Earth. As a good deal of humor runs through the film’s screenplay, Henry (returning to his role from the last film) and Stevens are the source of some of the film’s funniest lines.

The picture’s only real issue is in the way the characters speak only in exposition and do so in too rapid a manner. They move fast and spit out their lines as if the director told them, “Hurry, we need to get to the action.” Even in a film such as this, it is okay to slow down.

Let’s be real, no one is there for deep-rooted human stories. Audiences are coming for the spectacle and this is where the film succeeds in full.

Following our beloved beast through his adventures in and out of Hollow Earth, this is certainly Kong’s story. While Godzilla could almost receive a “special appearance by” credit, he gets in some great moments and the scene where the two meet once again is an exciting barrage of fighting, destruction, and humor. There are many titan battles throughout the film and a good deal of them are quite spectacular. The CGI is something one must accept. In many places, it looks great, but in a few spots, the look seems to come out of a video game. Here, almost everything looks like a soundstage colored with CGI. While that would usually be a negative, for the cartoonish style and rhythms in this film, it all works.

This entry’s bright neon visual stylings are quite dazzling and vibe quite well with Antonio Di Iorio and Junkie XL’s electronic, 80s-fueled score. Director Wingard and his team paint a monster-filled coat of pretty colors. To date, this is the brightest of any Kong or Godzilla picture and these shiny and sunlit environments are used to their full pageantry.

The special effects may not be as convincing as the other films (and it isn’t the movie’s fault that the phenomenal fx extravaganza Godzilla Minus One just copped an Oscar for their superior work), but Wingard and company know how to make one hell of an exciting monster movie. There are some well-designed battles fought hard in the sunlight and Wingard lets his audience experience every minute.

At times silly, but consistently fun and occasionally tender, it was smart for Adam Wingard to embrace a complete fantasy tone. With its fun 80s vibe, bursts of magical colors, nonstop monster action, and dashes of Spielberg (and maybe even a little John Milus), Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire delivers its monster mash with wit, style, and goofily exciting fun.

Get your IMAX ticket, grab the biggest bucket of popcorn available, and strap in. THIS is why we go to the movies.

 

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Written by Terry Rosio, Simon Barrett and Jeremy Slater

Directed by Adam Wingard

Starring Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle

PG-13, 115 minutes, Warner Brothers, Legendary Entertainment