Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is the fifth and latest movie in the Monsterverse. The story begins three years after Kong and Godzilla defeated Mechagodzilla, as seen in the last movie “Godzilla vs. Kong” (2021). Since then, Kong has been living in the Hollow Earth, where Monarch has made an outpost to observe how he’s doing. Godzilla spends most of his time sleeping in the Colosseum and fighting other Titans when they appear as threats to humanity. Jia, the assumed last survivor of the Iwi tribe, lives with Ilene Andrews as her adopted daughter and continues her studies.

And then, a couple of things happen simultaneously. Surface Earth starts receiving unknown and unnatural signals from Hollow Earth. Godzilla wakes up, leaves Rome, goes to France, attacks a nuclear plant, and absorbs energy. This is a sign that he is preparing to face a big threat. Jia begins to experience visions or hallucinations and unconsciously draws a bunch of pyramid-shaped symbols. Ilene realizes there’s an interconnection between these three incidents. Something is not right in Hollow Earth. Perhaps someone or something is sending these signals, asking for help from down there.

Like other Monsterverse movies, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is a fun-to-watch film. There is no heavy plot, extraordinary cinematography, or standout acting—just big monster CG fights without much depth in the story. People seem to enjoy them in theaters as well. There’s no reason to analyze the filmmaking or determine if it’s “Cinema according to Scorsese” or not. The whole point of movies like this is just entertainment. All we can do is judge it by comparing it with other movies of its kind.

For me, the first act felt quite engaging and thrilling. I was hooked by the anticipation of the threat level that Kong is going to face. The enemy is so powerful and dangerous that he’s going to need Godzilla’s help. However, the final fight scene disappointed me. I didn’t really find the opponent threatening—nothing near Mechagodzilla in the last movie. But overall fight scenes were pretty enjoyable to watch on the big screen. The CG, sound design and VFX were as good as in the previous movies.

“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is the kind of movie where you can predict what’s going to happen throughout the whole film just by watching the trailer. And yet, you will enjoy the movie for its entertainment value, unless you are one of those cinephiles who doesn’t like commercial movies at all.

I think “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is a fun-to-watch movie when you have family or friends around.