Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire (2024)

What can I say if your into the monster verse & love those old time Toho studio films you'll love "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire".  But I think even if you're not a fan you'll enjoy this film.  In this film we have a team up, and what a team up it is.  Godzilla and Kong doing their thing.  Here they must defeat the evil ape Scar & his pet who is controlled by Scar, and it's up to Godzilla to help along with Kong.

The movie opens up the monster-verse and makes it bigger.  We the audience learn more about hollow earth and its lore, and it's a great jumping off point film for more adventures with our cast of characters.  Is this a film that says something and why does it exists, and all I can say is the film exists for pure entertainment value, and for the kid inside of all of us.  This film is about the monsters, and it is us humans who are caught in the middle of it.  Godzilla is the protector of the earth.  That means he protects it from even us, the film Godzilla minus One was more about us creating the monster himself.   The two movies are very different, yet share a theme that man is the Earth's own enemy.  Godzilla evolved into a good monster somewhere in the late 60's I believe with the film "Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster".   In that film Godzilla teams up with Rodan & Mothra to defeat the monster from space who is threatening Earth.  From then on it was a string of films where Godzilla was helping the Earth, and it again shifted in 1985 with "The Return of Godzilla".  Toho studios is still is the owner of Godzilla and luckily they've recently revived the big lizard with several films from Legendary Pictures & distributed by Warner Brothers, which revives the Monster-verse only with a bit of a slant.  In these films King Kong & Godzilla team up for another battle to save the earth, yet they are still enemies.  It's just in this film their on a truce of sorts, and it's brought about by the Queen of the monsters, good old Mothra.  Yes Mothra who in this in-carnation is Godzilla's friend.  It was known that in Toho studio films Mothra was a friend to Godzilla.  In this iteration of the Monster-verse there is a hierarchy in the monster-verse, and with each film Legendary produces they borrow from the old ,which is Toho Studios, and it is because of this that the series is so successful.   Warner Brothers is the franchise owner of King Kong, so hence the merging of the two, and I might add they've done it very successfully here.

I could go on & on about the into the plot, but that's been said and done already, and if you want to find out the particulars  Google it.  I'm just here to say if you're a big kid or if you have young ones who love monsters this film is for you.  Especially if they like monsters, and who doesn't.  If you wanted reality in this type of film you're in the wrong movie.  Such as the concept of hollow earth is one of the fantastic, but one that has been already been written and seen in other films & books.  "Journey to the Center of the Earth" or films like "The Land that Time Forgot" are all works that deal with another world under the Earth.  It's this that makes "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" a film that feels like a throwback to those films of the 60's and 70's.  It's what makes this film such a joy to watch, with the family.  Grown ups will remember seeing those films of the 60's & 70's in their childhood, and it brings another generation into the fold where the two different generations can share their loves of the genre.  That's it's magic. 

At the end of the film the Earth is saved and the monsters win.  But what this film does is open up the franchise to other battles, and other films.  Hopefully the studio continues this and remembers it's audience.  There are a lot of fans of these types of films, and if played well they can have many more years of these films.  The one thing they have to do is not condescend down to it's audience.  If done right we can have a resurgence of new films that will entertain and enthrall the next generation.

 This viewer was very satisfied, and saw it with his family.  All of us enjoyed it, and it was like one big wrestle-mania with Monster's and what child doesn't love a good monster fighting movie?  Some of Toho's films of the late 60's did have a sort of moral about our planet and that the monsters or as they refer to them as "the Titans" were a necessary to keep a check on man.  They in essence bring balance to the Earth.  Later Toho even made Godzilla the villain again and it's due to man's interference in the natural order of the planet.   So there is a lot that the studios can do to foster this.  Seemingly there is an appetite for this as the box office this week-end proved.

Time will tell if the studio get's it right, or it becomes another mistake like with over-saturated superhero movies that Marvel & Disney produce.  Hopefully they listen to the fans, and occasionally give us what we want, and that's more Kong & Godzilla films.  Till then I'll be waiting and relishing other monster-verse films.  Defiantly a go see film with the family, and if you have little ones who love monsters run don't walk to the theater.  You'll all enjoy it.  It's that entertaining.