Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Review - Bigger And Better

In some ways, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is just another mega-budget Hollywood CGI spectacle, something we've seen a ton of examples of every year for the past two decades and change. But, like the previous MonsterVerse movies, Godzilla x Kong has its own distinct vibe and aesthetic that sets it apart from all those generic blockbusters that the studios and streamers keep churning out. Sure, there's no meaningful substance to be found on this titanic adventure, but you don't really need it when your movie is otherwise this fun and well put together.

Some time has passed since Godzilla and King Kong devastated Hong Kong when they fought both each other and Mecha-Godzilla in the last movie, and everybody's trying their best to get used to living with these massive beings who keep accidentally slaughtering huge amounts of people while they go about their business--at the beginning of the movie, Godzilla has to fight yet another titan in Rome, before curling up in a ball in the Colosseum and taking a nap.

Kong, by contrast, has been spending his time beneath the ground in the world of Hollow Earth, where Monarch has set up a bunch of bases to keep track of his movements and to study the wild ecosystem down there. New paths keep opening up for Kong to explore, until he eventually encounters a group of hostile giant apes who have enslaved all the other Hollow Earth apes. This group is led by a particularly mean-looking ape, King Skar--he wants to dominate the surface. But Kong is able to recruit a kid giant ape from among them to serve as a guide and help fight.