Kaiju Korner - Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire

I can’t remember if I saw it in a YouTube video or if I read it, but the following quote makes a whole lot of sense, especially when we have the circumstance of a Toho Godzilla film coming out within fairly close proximity to a WB/Legendary one:

“American Godzilla movies are about Godzilla. Japanese Godzilla movies are about life.”

What timing. After the mind-blowing Godzilla Minus One, released in December and playing throughout January, WB released their film a little over a month and a half later, releasing Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire at the end of March. This gave both American audiences and kaiju fans the opportunity to compare and contrast within such a short span of time, as buzz around Minus One was still happening…especially about the low cost yet realistic visual effects. How does GxK stand up to his Japanese cousin? We’ll take a look after the synopsis.

Their kingdoms defined, Godzilla rules the Earth while Kong makes his home in the Hollow Earth. Sensing a new threat, the big G becomes active, hunting down power sources and other Titans in an attempt to charge up for what is ahead. That threat is found as Kong delves deeper into his new world after an earthquake there frees the malevolent Skar King. Can Kong recruit an overpowered Godzilla to tackle this new Titan, or are both of their world’s doomed?

As I mentioned above, Godzilla Minus One was released on December 1st, 2023. The first trailer for GxK dropped a mere two days later on December 3rd. In some ways, I understand this decision: right from the start, Godzilla Minus One was already a hot ticket and WB’s marketing staff wanted to take advantage of that to help build momentum for their film. And, possibly to some effect, this worked as the film would go on to pull down $570 million off of a $150 million budget. But I can’t have been the only one turned off by the monstrous tonal shift between the two films: as stated above, one about a monster, the other about rebuilding a life from scratch in the face of an overwhelming threat. From the get-go, anyone that had seen Godzilla Minus One knew that GxK was going to be very different. [Okay, okay, aside from the fact that one was a small Japanese film with subtitles and the other was the ususal big, dumb American blockbuster. – Ed.] As someone who pretends to be a film critic, I understand that the assignment is to push back any biases you might have and evaluate a film on its own merits, how well it stands up within the context of its own genre, so on and so forth. However, given their proximity, I’m not sure I’m able to do that. Godzilla Minus One is widely considered one of, if not the best Godzilla film in the creature’s 70-year history. Thusly, it casts a long shadow…one, unfortunately for this viewer, that GxK isn’t able to escape from.

So let’s start with plot. Did you read the synopsis? That’s it. Okay, maybe a few additional things. There are some humans that serve as our point-of-view characters, but they really serve two purposes: to be Kong’s support team and finding Mothra. Sure, there’s a lost tribe in there explaining why everything in the Hollow Earth looks the way that it does and tries to assign at least a little bit of weight to one of the human characters but…meh. It’s neat but ultimately superfluous. Kong’s arc follows your typical Rocky film: there’s a fight, opponent wins, then training montage, then Rocky wins the rematch. Sadly, Godzilla’s kinda just…there. I mean, he’s certainly not static. He fights a Titan in Rome where afterward he very much subscribes to the cat philosophy of “If I fits, I sits” when it comes to the Colosseum. Then he goes a fights a Titan in the arctic. But even though he’s not idle, he really doesn’t add much until the big tag-team at the end. Now, that’s not to say a film with very little Godzilla in it is automatically crap. There wasn’t much of the big G both in the classic Gojira nor in the already way too often mentioned Godzilla Minus One…but he looms over everything in those films. You don’t see him…but you feel him. Here, this film is ultimately more Kong’s story: Finding a home, revealing a threat to that home, stopping the threat and building a new family. Godzilla here is just Kong’s cranky frenemy. Hrm. You know, it strikes me that you wouldn’t have to do much in the way of a rewrite to make this entirely a Kong story but have this kick-ass Godzilla cameo during the end fight. I can’t help but wonder if that might have been the better way to go. That way, the movie can be advertised for what it is: a Kong movie guest-starring Godzilla. As it is, even though it is labelled Godzilla X Kong, I assure you, it’s Kong’s film.

I mentioned humans, which means we have actors. And…meh…no one in particular pulls you out of the movie (although not for Brian Tyree Henry’s lack of trying). If one had to assign the lead role, it would be Rebecca Hall’s Dr. Ilene Andrews. Certainly her performance is serviceable, but it’s not exactly a role with chops: manage a deaf-mute daughter with a psychic connection to Kong, lead an expedition with occasional techno-babble and exposition dumps. Still, with the amount of green screen and cgi she (and the entire cast) had to imagine, the fact that there are no moments where she betrays the illusion is perhaps kudos unto itself. Since I’ve already name-dropped him, Brian Tyree Henry plays the role of Bernie, a returning character from Godzilla vs Kong that, quite simply, I don’t even remember. Of course, if Bernie held a similar role as a blogger in the previous film…well, perhaps my brain is protecting me by making it a repressed memory. Okay, to be fair, that all sounds a little harsh. Bernie’s role throughout this whole flick is that of comic relief, but for me it proved to be very hit or miss. The comparison that springs to mind is Anthony Anderson’s character in Michael Bay’s 2007 Transformers. While some quips prove to be funny, especially when aimed at Dan Stevens’ Trapper, many of them feel almost like the writers or producers just wanted a large, loud black guy there just to yell “Aw HELL no!” and the like. But your mileage may vary. After all, humor is subjective and I’ve already admitted to being an old sourpuss. [His words, not mine. - Ed.] Speaking of Trapper, we’re handed “the cool guy” of the film, but more like “I was cool in the 80s and that makes me eccentric now”. While we’re introduced to him as a veterinarian for Titans as he replaces an infected tooth on Kong, he ends up being a jack of all trades having aided in the the building of Kong’s cyber-augmentation arm, flying the group’s transport after the original pilot is killed in a very drive-in “anyone can die at any time” sort of way and, of course, former love interest of Dr. Andrews. To the film’s credit, it doesn’t try to get the two of them back together. As other reviews have indicated, Stevens’ performance is the one that stands out, mixing cool with quirky and a slathering of 80s nostalgia on top of that. Is it outstanding? Not really. I mean, it’s fun, but like any of the performances in this film, none of them are really going to stick with you after the credits roll. Lastly, I don’t want to forget Kaylee Hottle’s performance as Jia, the aforementioned deaf-mute teen and savior of the lost Iwi tribe. Probably the best thing one can say, given the long history of annoying kids in kaiju movies, is that she doesn’t live up to that “Kenny” moniker. [Ah, apparently she’s the other returning actor from G vs K. Thanks Wiki! - Ed.] Still, she proves serviceable and, perhaps most importantly, her connection with Kong, obviously a non-existent cgi character, works.

Alright, let’s get to the meat and potatoes of this review: effects and production design. To start with the latter first, most of the design elements are certainly great at catching your eye. While most of the Monarch stuff has a very high-tech feel to it, as we make our way down into the Hollow Earth…or just the more natural setting portions of the film, be it surface world or otherwise, the color choices lean on an 80s sensibility…trending more neon if at all possible, especially the pinks and blues (director Wingard’s favorite colors). The effects on the other hand…woof. I mean, they’re not all bad but in a film like this, it kind of has to be all or nothing and unfortunately, what we’re given here is uneven. Now, given the sheer volume of what had to be cg in this film, I can kind of understand why things are uneven. But…you knew I had to circle back around to Godzilla Minus One again, didn’t you…the fact of the matter is that you had a largely flawless take on the same character just months prior that was done by one crew, under one director for a mere fraction of what G x K’s effects had to cost. That’s not gonna help any. I’d point to the most consistent inconsistent effect being Suko (baby Kong). There are a handful of moments he looks fine…but seemingly many more where he looks VERY cg. This is a fate that befalls most of the apes in this film…never Kong, thankfully, but even the villainous Skar King doesn’t look right at times. And it does jar you out of the atmosphere that Wingard is trying to create. The Ice Dragon, Shimo, ends up failing both of these: the design wasn’t very great and nearly every appearance felt off. Ultimately, I finally came to understand something my high school physics teacher, Mr. Donovan, told me. When I asked him what he thought about Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, he told me that he didn’t care for it. It looked too much like a cartoon to him. Now, being a young cinephile, I did everything short of accusing him of blasphemy…intoxicated not only in the fact that there was finally a new Star Wars film and how dare anyone be critical (boy did I do a 180 on this one!), but also by the seemingly infinite prospects of the new world that was post-Jurassic Park computer effects. Now I get it. Whether through overuse or the up and down quality of the effects, a large part of G x K just feels like a cartoon happening around actors walking in limited sets and green screen. And if your film’s effects don’t amplify the illusion of what’s on-screen, serving instead to tear said illusion down…then you’ve got a significant problem with your movie.

Look, I come off as negative when it comes to Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire and yes, it’s a little unfair given that a far superior Godzilla film came out only months before this film did. The thing is, yes, I did enjoy the film…just on a different level. G x K feels like a late-Showa era Godzilla film. It doesn’t make a lick of sense, but there’s a playfulness to it…like the director just gathered up all his toys in the sandbox and started smashing them together. And, if you’re looking for a movie about giant monsters duking it out, G x K delivers. Perhaps most importantly, it really fits in well with the remainder of the Monsterverse…remaining tonally consistent. The biggest problem with G x K is coming out so close to Godzilla Minus One, it’s almost like having filet mignon for dinner one night, then salisbury steak the next. You might like both, but when you’re chewing your glorified hamburger meat in gravy you’re going to be thinking about that delicious bacon-wrapped morsel you had just a mere 24 hours ago. The comparison, given their proximity, is unavoidable. Such is the case here. G x K is perfectly fine, nothing outstanding and a fun way to spend a couple of hours…but when put beside such an emotionally involving post-WWII drama that just happens to feature a terrifying giant radioactive lizard with one of the most awesome displays of atomic breath yet put to film…this reviewer tends to favor a story about life instead. This juxtaposition ends up earning G x K a Plain Cat rating. It’s fine…it just could be better. And for less money to boot.