GODZILLA x KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE
The Monsterverse is still going strong for Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures. They’re pleased to announce the latest entry in the franchise, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, is now available to own on 4K, Blu-Ray, DVD, and Digital. The fifth entry has to be the biggest, most ridiculous film yet as the audiences continue to watch these two titans duke it out.
More dinosaurs! More apes! More lizards! More bombastic fights! It’s “somewhere in Hollow Earth” where we watch Kong battling other mythical beasts and creatures tearing them apart and then gnawing on their remains. He looks lonely and suffering from an infected tooth. Yes, that becomes integral to the plot as the film progresses. Hollow Earth exists far below the Earth’s surface where Kong has been trapped and studied by scientists, including Rebecca Hall who is back as Dr. Ilene Andrews. Her daughter, Jia (Kaylee Hottle), is deaf and is not adjusting well to her new school and doesn’t feel like she fits in anywhere. Meanwhile, Godzilla has been a big help with battling other monsters destroying the planet that the humans can’t face on their own. Things turn for the worse when Godzilla starts wreaking havoc in Italy and France absorbing atomic energy and radiation signaling he’s preparing for something massive. It’s all hands on deck when Kong escapes Hollow Earth. When Dr. Andrews, her daughter, podcaster and blogger Berner Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry), and Trapper the veterinarian (Dan Stevens) head into Hollow Earth, they uncover a whole civilization of people, animals, and monsters that upends everything they’ve learned about Kong and Godzilla.
This is director Adam Wingard’s second film in the MonsterVerse following Godzilla vs. Kong in 2021. This is truly one of those movies that’s somewhat hard to review as you can’t apply science or logic to a Godzilla Kong movie, but the whole thing is just so ridiculous at every turn. Wingard knows this, and his cast seem to be having fun with the material, especially Dan Stevens and Brian Tyree Henry. They’re basically caricatures with an understanding of the genre they’re playing in.
One of the filmmakers described this film as, “It’s a MosnterVerse day of wreckonging.” Wingard knows he has to amp up what’s come before, so he literally is going into uncharted territories in Hollow Earth wtih new monsters and other threats. At one point, I just threw my hands up and said, “What is happening?” I think fans going in wanting to watch monsters smash each other apart will be pleased. The film has to rely on CGI and special effects to pull off a majority of these sequences. I do want to give Wingard and his team credit for filming on location as much as possible. You can learn more about that in the special features. This story is very Kong focused reaching Planet of the Apes territory at times but without the motion capture acting. It’s not the strongest film in the MonsterVerse franchise, as it’s starting to feel like content at this point over having intriguing characters and a story. Am I expecting too much from a Kaiju type film?
The physical and digital releases are full of special features with many behind-the scenes featurettes:
- GxK: Day of Reckoning
- Evolution of the Titans: Godzilla Evolved
- Evolution of the Titans: From Lonely God to King
- Into the Hollow Earth: Visualizing Hollow Earth
- Into the Hollow Earth: Monsters of Hollow Earth
- The Battles Royale: A Titanic Fight Among the Pyramids
- The Battles Royale: The Zero Gravity Battle
- The Battles Royale: The Titans Trash Rio
- The Intrepid Director: Adam Wingard: Big Kid
- The Intrepid Director: Adam Wingard: Set Tour
- The Imagination Department
- The Monarch Island Base: Portal to Another World
- The Evolution of Jia: From Orphan to Warrior
- Bernie’s World: Behind the Triple Locked Door
- Commentary by Director Adam Wingard, Visual Effects Supervisor Alessandro Ongaro, Production Designer Tom Hammock and Editor Josh Schaeffer
- AND MORE!
Here’s a video I made for TikTok
For more on the MonsterVerse check out my other reviews
Godzilla (2014)
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
