In honor of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the two titans of RIOTUS are teaming together like the big fellas at the center of the movie for a joint-review of the new MonsterVerse entry.
Julian Lytle: After a banner 70th anniversary year for the King of Monsters Godzilla, with the Apple TV+ series Monarch and then the Academy award-winning Godzilla: Minus One, it’s a great time to be into Godzilla. We’re also at the ten-year mark for the Legendary MonsterVerse films. With Adam Wingard returning after the successful Godzilla vs. Kong, we now have them in a team-up movie. I guess the most surprising thing about going to see Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is, did you really expect the MonsterVerse to make it this far and do you feel like this is a good entry into this franchise?
William Goodman: It’s kind of funny to me that the DCEU and the MonsterVerse launched within a year of one another, yet the latter is a far more successful and coherent extended universe. Sometimes, it pays to keep it simple. This new installment is a good entry into the kaiju genre, mostly because Wingard has a good sense of what people want to see: giant monsters fighting one another. That’s not to say there aren’t things to quibble about in terms of pacing or structure, but Godzilla Minus One and these MonsterVerse films are not. I think it’s wonderful that this film can exist alongside that one and that you can have a bit of a choice of your own adventure when it comes to tales of the King of the Monsters. Should we explain the plot of this one a little bit?
JL: So after the events of Godzilla vs. Kong, we have a split in how the territory of the world is split up by the two. Godzilla runs the surface (OR ELSE!), and Kong is now exploring the Hollow Earth set up in the last film as he tries to look for other Giant Apes. Something is causing trouble, leading to more Titan attacks that Godzilla must deal with, as well as some weird readings Monarch is noticing along with Jia (Kaylee Hottle), the Iwe tribe girl who was introduced in the last movie as Kong’s friend. Her adopted mother, Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), and Monarch Scientist in charge of Kong decided to go down to Hollow Earth, bringing back Titan conspiracy theorist podcaster Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) from the last movie as well. This leads to three different journeys to dealing with a new secret threat from the past of the planet, the Titans, and Godzilla’s place in all of it. For me, all of this was pretty easy to follow, but I do know that for many, the plot lines about the human characters are a drag. Do you feel that the plot of Jia and Ilene (and, in turn, all of Monarch) hurts or helps the film?
WG: I do think the weakest portion of the MonsterVerse movies are the human characters. Wingard hit on something in the last film, though: Rebecca Hall. I think Hall is one of our most underappreciated performers, and she always brings believability to reach role she takes while also elevating the material accordingly. She’s saddled with whole scenes that are nothing but expository dialogue and makes them feel effortless, while also selling the paternal relationship with Jia.
The human element gets a boost this time around, though, thanks to Trapper (Dan Stevens, reuniting with Wingard from The Guest, a wall-to-wall banger). Stevens is having an absolute blast here playing — and I shit you not — Kong’s veterinarian. He’s introduced by flying in on a giant orbital platform to yank a rotten tooth from the ape.
While I still think the human characters often feel like set dressing or a secondary thought, Wingard is doing his best to provide them with as much engaging material as possible. It also helps that Stevens, Hall, Henry, and Hottle are the only human leads; streamlining the cast down from the last film does give these plots a bit more weight that other MonsterVerse films haven’t quite had.
While it is all easy to follow, it is all a little nonsensical at times. I did feel the setup to get Kong and Godzilla was a little more forced this time around. What about you? How do you feel the big guns fare this time?
JL: While I’m a big supporter of the human parts of these movies because of my lifelong fandom of Godzilla films and seeing them all multiple times, it’s how they handle the Titans, which, while I enjoy, is showing cracks in the MonsterVerse overall narrative. These folks want to make another Kong movie, but Kong, or as he continues in this film from the last – Kong McClane will never be as big of a draw as Godzilla. Kong has the heroic journey and arc, and for most of it, you can see the influence of the modern Planet of the Apes film on this version of Kong. His life in the Hollow Earth is explored from his making of traps to deal with threats, his daily life of taking showers and even having to go to the dentist.
Kong’s journey with Jia’s story as a companion piece to push along the story is a lot of fun to watch. Yet then we get to Godzilla, who’s used like how Batman and Wolverine were in the 90s crossover superhero comics. He’s seasoning at best. Godzilla knows everything, and he knows what’s going on even as others don’t, and it doesn’t change how he operates in the world. His little segments are more or less getting his power up to destroy the final threat that actually to Godzilla isn’t a threat at all. It’s Tuesday, a late-day meeting at work; it’s just an annoyance. Yet Godzilla looked amazing in this movie. After the film, we chatted briefly about the effects and animation of this movie and just how consistent they are with this franchise. What stood out to you on how it looks cinematically?
WG: Wingard’s style is pretty dynamic by nature, so the camera is fluid with its movements. Our screening was in IMAX, and the film definitely takes advantage of the format in a satisfying way. I think some of the visual effects lose their luster when rendered against the human characters but Kong and Godzilla look the best they ever have. Shoutout to the motion capture performers behind them, especially Kong, who do such an incredible job of making each monster feel life-like. Your point about Kong McClane is so fitting; he’s a grizzled old vet at this point, and the performance conveys that accordingly.
The film is also awash in plenty of vibrant hues, from Hollow Earth’s interiors to Godzilla’s magenta glow once he goes Super Syain Rose. We rightfully knock some modern-day blockbusters for looking bland or boring, but that’s hardly the case here.
Any other closing thoughts here? I think we’re big fans of how fun this feels, even with some issues with the plot. I’m a big fan of the genre for its simplicity; what you want is what you get, and New Empire absolutely delivers in this regard.
JL: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a movie made for me. It was enjoyable and worked well as a big-scale movie theater experience. It works on cartoon-style levels of power-ups and mech armor and tag team battles all over the world. Yet I feel it’s great that we have these different choices and styles for tokusatsu filmmaking. You can have a deeply emotional real-world event-responding film like Minus One, and you can have the Showa and Millennium eras influenced Godzilla movie that also does right by the history of King Kong. I hope others just give themselves a chance to enjoy themselves and accept it for what it’s trying to be. We have cool air vehicles and a giant orangutan doing ape capoeira while using a whip made from a spine. It feels like Godzilla fights something new every 20 minutes. We are living in good toku times William, and I’m just basking in it.
RIOTUS 
