Godzilla has taken many forms over the years. In every era Godzilla starts as the destructive force of nature meant to remind humanity of their place in the world. As these era’s progress things always have a tendency to start getting silly. The original message of Godzilla (1954), and The Return of Godzilla (1984), are lost to favor a little more of a comedic take on the King of the Monsters. Bolstering big kaiju fights over a story and narrative mean to teach lessons these movies tend to be less favorably received and usually are the catalyst for the era’s end and a following reboot.
The Monsterverse has been around for nearly decade. Starting in 2014 with the release of Godzilla. Legendary Pictures became the first American studio to take a stab at rebooting Godzilla after the not so well received Godzilla (1998). After the success of Godzilla (2014) Legendary Pictures began outlining a universe and several projects were green lit. Godzilla: King of the Monsters expanded the universe to include Rodan, Mothra and Monster Zero/King Ghidorah. While not as well received as its predecessor Godzilla: King of the Monsters sparked interest enough for Legendary and Warner Brothers to push forward with more films. In 2015 a reboot of the King Kong franchise was moved to Warner Brothers from Universal and as result Kong: Skull Island (2017) was produced in entered the now fully established Monsterverse. Skull Island expands the world even further with it being a period piece set in 1973. The organization Monarch becomes the glue that holds the universe together. Once firmly established that all of these events happen in one cohesive universe Kong and Godzilla lock horns in 2021’s Godzilla vs Kong. Godzilla vs Kong introduced MechaGodzilla to the Monsterverse and the concept of the hollow Earth was expanded from it’s introduction in Kong: Skull Island. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters further cements the organization into the universe as a companion series on Apple TV+ expanding the history of Monarch and it’s encounters with Godzilla.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire picks up 3 years after he events of Godzilla vs Kong. Kong is adjusting to his territory within the hollow earth. Monarch has established outposts throughout mapped regions of the hollow earth. The hollow Earth has been fruitful for the surface as it provides whole new energy sources for the world. While Kong searches for more of his find within hallow Earth, Godzilla is restoring balance to the awaken titans on Earth. There is action from both our monstrous leads from the very start as Kong fights pack of dog-like creatures and Godzilla battles the titan Scylla in Rome. It’s funny how this one handles the aftermath of these fights, Godzilla literally curls up like a cat and sleeps it off in the Roman Collossum. From the jump I knew what I was in for. It was time to get silly and I had no idea how silly things were going to get.
Everything within the Monsterverse is relatively great. Godzilla rules the surface while Kong has made the hollow Earth his home. However an ancient evil soon threatens that balance. Enter the Scar King, another ape titan who was imprisoned by Godzilla a Millennia ago. Where? In another hollow Earth. That’s right there’s a subterranean realm within hollow Earth. After coming back to hollow Earth Scar King and his prisoner Shimu (another lizard like titan with ice powers) set their sights on getting to the surface. Luckily the indigenous tribe of Skull Island are alive and well in the inner hollow Earth where they not only hold the key to making Godzilla understand he needs to help and not hurt Kong, Mothra! While Godzilla fights another titan and absorbs its energy Kong encounters Scar King and Shimu and nearly looses a hand. Luckily Monarch titan-veterinarian Trapper (think Ace Ventura for titans) has a power glove ready to go to give the big guy a boost. All the titan fights are incredible in this movie because there is absolutely no effort to ground any of this in reality anymore. Godzilla goes through an evolution, almost like an anime character the blue atomic energy is traded for pink and our brick shit house of a lizard drops some weight and gets ready for the upcoming battle.
Godzilla and Kong briefly fight in Egypt where Godzilla straight up vertical suplexes Kong like it’s a giant sized 1999 edition of WWE Monday Night RAW! Luckily our human heroes get Mothra ready to emerge from her egg and get the boys to stop fighting long enough to prepare for the oncoming threat of the Scar King. What happens next is truly amazing. Kong and Godzilla return to hollow Earth to fight the Scar King and Shimu, IN ZERO GRAVITY! This is where stuff starts getting real bananas. Godzilla and Kong really fight well together in tandem. Kong even jumps on Godzilla’s back as they ride into battle in what I can only compare to Transformers movie level silliness. Shimu is shown to be an unwilling participant in Scar King’s plans as he possesses a crystal shard that hurts the titan if it doesn’t comply. With the help from the human heroes gravity gets restored but not before Scar King gets to the surface and the battle continues in Rio de Janeiro. Here we get more over the top monster fighting silliness. While Shimu is forced to start another ice age Kong is able to through Scar King at Godzilla who bats him with his tail to a waiting power punch from Kong. Scar King is able to use his bone whip to fling buildings at our heroes and proves to be force for even the evolved Godzilla to deal with,
Luckily after a fight for the crystal that controls Shimu ends with it breaking Shimu turns on the Scar King and freezes him solid. And soon is shattered into a million pieces. With the Scar King defeated Kong inherits the other ape titans as their leader and rides Shimu into the sunset back to hollow Earth. Godzilla restores our atmosphere preventing another ice age and goes right back to sleep in the Roman Colosseum. Kong finally has found more of his kind and assumes leadership of the tribe. I kinda felt bad for Shimu who is finally free after an incredibly long time of being under the Scar King’s control but ends up being a pet for Kong anyway. For now balance once again is restored in the Monsterverse.
Godzilla x Kong: The new Empire is really fun. It’s a silly ride through and every growing bonkers universe inhabited by giant monsters that beat each other up. Humans take an even bigger back seat then in past Monsterverse movies and maybe that’s a good thing. The fights in this one are bonkers but make the silliness and tone departure more than enough to stomach. As sad as it can be for the more gritty and grounded Monsterverse films to give way to something closer to a Michael bay Transformer’s film, this is how every other Godzilla era has gone. The tonal shift to comedy and out of this world scenarios were something not even this iteration could turn away from. In all of the Monsterverse projects this one has the least Godzilla in it and truly focuses on Kong. With undoubtably more projects on the way Godzilla will probably be taking center stage the next round and I look forward to how silly these films are going to get.
If a more narrative driven traditional Godzilla is more your style I highly recommend Godzilla Minus 1 as an alternative.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is just dumb fun. 4/5