If you read the title of this film, you probably immediately have an image of it. A gigantic lizard, an equally large monkey, who then start a kind of new kingdom together. That’s pretty much what you can expect in this movie. In any case, Godzilla x Kong is exactly what you expect, and then takes it even further.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
In this film franchise, Titans (gigantic beasts) have somewhat taken over the world. Each Titan has its own area and people try not to exert too much influence on it, while everything is of course well monitored. If one day some kind of technical disruptions occur in three peaks, things turn out to be very wrong. This is especially noticeable because of the adopted daughter of our leading actress, researcher Ilene (Rebecca Hall). Her daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle) is the last one left of her tribe and she too receives these disturbances, albeit a little differently from the rest.
We switch to Kong (and that is something we will do more often in this film, switching between the titans and the humans). He lives his normal life in a wooded, beautiful area, but does have some problems with his molar. However, things only get really interesting and wonderfully over-the-top when Godzilla is on screen. He lives his life quite differently.
Huge (and) over the top
Godzilla is exactly what makes this franchise so wonderful: gigantic (and) over the top. We see how the beast initially sets foot on land to help us as humanity clean up another titan, where it doesn’t matter that all kinds of beautiful historic buildings in Rome are being destroyed. At one point we even see Godzilla sleeping soundly in the Colosseum, as if he has found his nice basket there. It’s those moments when you realize: “I’m really watching something incredibly absurd.”
However, this realization is no surprise. This is what you know when you go to a movie like this and that is why it has a large fan base: those battles between those behemoths that are devastating and of course the fact that it is incredibly unrealistic and in many cases even very campy (for example when the doctor makes his appearance again or our stupid, comic relief falls behind again). This film was not made for a serious audience, and you certainly shouldn’t take it seriously.
Where is the lesson?
I did go into the cinema with the idea: let’s see if there is any soul to be found in this story. Is there a lesson to be learned about sustainability, for example, or is there a storyline that really has a bit more body or adds a bit of heart to the film. I would love to say yes, because it would be fantastic if director Adam Wingard (Blair Witch, The Guest) had succeeded, but I’m afraid that won’t happen. He does try, namely with mothers who may be in danger of losing their daughter to what reveals itself through that ‘disturbance’, but in the end it is not really dealt with properly.
This film will also not teach you anything about nature conservation, which is partly because we mainly look at how people look at how those behemoths actually determine everything. We are all on the sidelines of a lot of fighting spectacle. I think that’s a shame, because it’s clearly being attempted, but ultimately this film series is mainly a story about gigantic beasts that are much more powerful than us and that we just have to learn to live with.
Exactly what you expect
It’s a cliché to say, but it really applies to this film series: if you come to watch fantastic fights between all kinds of creatures that are quite overgrown – and which also involve a fair amount of gore – and you If you just want to laugh with your friends about the exaggeration and sometimes the absurdity of it, then Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a fun film for you. Perhaps the director’s attempt to add a little more soul will bother you, because sometimes a lot of time is taken for the story, while it actually carries little weight. But I think there are plenty of fighting and threatening moments left to enjoy, with of course an ultimate battle at the end.
And it is also really entertaining: the moment when Kong encounters the monkey you see above this article is one that will definitely put a smile on your face: the humanization of monkeys, the ‘bullet belt’ that is made of bones, Sometimes you don’t know what you are seeing, and especially what the director dares to present to us. And we commend Wingard for that courage. This is all so bizarre: how do you come up with it? Every time you get used to a new level of craziness, this movie introduces something new that makes you stare in disbelief. And that, strange as it sounds, manages to hold the attention.
