Let’s ante-up to the next ape movie on the 2024 roster 😎 I know I’d cop heat (if anyone cared who I was) for trashing the last two fantasy movies for not being considerate enough, while enjoying a movie like this, billed to be some big dumb fun. But dumb movies can be great, so long as their exciting. It takes a lot more work to engineer a smart movie, which I’ll always recognise, but smart movies are a different type of engaging – they can be serious, or an “eat-your-vegetables” movie, as I like to call them, where the depth or education is worth more than the entertainment value… Does that make sense? I’m also out on a limb because I have not seen Godzilla Minus One, the Japanese Godzilla movie released last year that had a heap of other online critics claiming it a lesson for Hollywood, on how to make an engaging and action-packed movie on the cheap. I tried to get to it, haven’t, but have stuck fat with this Warner Bros. franchise made in English.
Directed by Adam Wingard, and following on from the events of his Godzilla vs. Kong, Kong now lives alone safely in Hollow Earth, and providing Godzilla stays on the surface, and Kong keeps below the Earth’s crust, our two alpha-titans shouldn’t have to deal with each other. But, as this movie starts, Godzilla is powering up, which is making our humans nervous 😬 And Kong is lonely, venturing further and further across his new terrain, subconsciously searching for links to other large apes like him. When Skull Island’s sole refugee, Jia (Kaylee Hottle), starts having visions coinciding with unidentified electromagnetic spikes on Monarch’s computer systems, the scientists of Monarch – the world’s most well-intended titan-monitoring conservationists – start to wonder if there’s more still to these giant wonders they’re yet to discover.
It seems the writers and director of this movie have listened to criticism about these movies having no plot – Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire starts with three story threads going on at once, and they’re all interesting. Kong will discover others like him, shedding further light on the historical rift between his kind and Godzilla, while the human team, headed by returning player Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), and her groovy dental college friend Trapper (Dan Stevens), will venture through Hollow Earth to discover an ancient civilization that means Jia is not alone. This movie is amping up the jungle adventure potential of this franchise for the better, although this Monarch crew has to be the most undermanned and inept travelers since Burke and Wills – they seem to be missing 3 soldiers at least, considering so many creatures “down there“ can kill them 😶 When future tree-loving Captain Mikeal (Alex Ferns) calls Trapper an Ace Ventura hippy, he’s not far wrong 😅 Yeah, Trapper didn’t work much for me, but actually, he’s not so bad by the end, although I really feel Dr. Andrews needed another seriously minded ally to bounce her ideas off too. Anyway, I’m surprised the events of the last movie didn’t end with Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry) joining Monarch, but I’m ultimately glad he didn’t, as, stressed podcaster aside, he gets to work as an independent contractor with fresh eyes for this movie, and he’s fine when he’s not babbling so much, like he did before, accompanying Milly Bobby Brown. I feel like this in-world universe has come a long way since the first movie back in 2014 – the world, through Monarch, understand these titans now; how they attack, and their purpose on Earth. I notice that these movies do feel like chapters in a book, where the ending of the last one influences the framing of the next, and they don’t just reset for the next big battle to commence – that takes some imagination and storytelling, as simple as it sounds. Jia is attending school now, just as Milly Bobby Brown’s character did as she grew up through the last sequel – although Jia is a character that provides so much heart, and for the second time this paragraph, I’ll hint at how this movie really isn’t missing Milly Bobby Brown (nothing personal).
When it comes to the action, this movie make for a fascinating battle between the new apes. I must admit, seeing glimpses of a trailer for this, I did roll my eyes at the thought of a baby giant ape, but this movie gives him purpose, and the dynamic with the other apes allows for Kong to come in and be the undisputed hero. The ice iguana, Shimo, is a fierce addition too, reminding me of the perils of something from Game of Thrones actually, and I appreciate how this movie stayed with lasting effects for the ice blast injuring Kong’s hand, because it gave Shimo stakes, even if it was just an excuse to give Kong robo-tech. Godzilla does take a backseat for a long time in this movie, but there’s still a mystery with him, wondering what path he’s taking, that results in him coming to us with a newly minted racing stripe 🎀 I remember applauding director Wingard’s ability to present the action in the last movie, through an array of unconventional camera techniques, and while I don’t think this movie is as revolutionary, the direction still contributes to what is an eye-nabbing contest at the end between Kong, Godzilla, Shimo, and the newly vengeful Skar King.
The events in this movie do range from “…that’s silly” to “that’s silly… cool” and if you can’t tell by now, I’m okay with that. This is Godzilla fighting King Kong after all – if you’re wanting that done to poetry, I haven’t seen it yet! The idea that Godzilla wants to take his little nappy-naps in Rome’s Colosseum is very cool, and the logistics of fixing a King Kong toothache is not something I ever imagined I’d want to see, but I stand corrected 😄 You just have to ignore the impulse that every building smashed during the final battle in Rio probably means the death of thousands of people 😐 Or how Godzilla’s radiation works, and if it’s supposed to kill on proximity, or hold any lasting affects – yeah, an answer to that question has always been overlooked. Still, I think this is the best movie out of Warner Bros. new Godzilla and Kong franchise. I was one of the few who jived with Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and the last team-up movie was pretty fun too; yet on balance, I think this one has the engaging action and story to tick both boxes; switch your mind off to, watch big-guy-smash, and appreciate how somewhere in the center of the Earth, there might be a giant moth sworn to protect humanity. Hey, I’m not saying there is… but who knows for sure. And I still might be one guy from the stone age, who doesn’t “get” Godzilla like most do, because I’m confined to the slosh of the Hollywood machine, where others have traversed every one of the 33 Japanese Godzilla movies out there, but I’m still happy where I be.
3.5
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