The battle for plot supremacy
After the critical and awardwinning success of Japanese film ‘Godzilla: Minus One’, fans of the giant creature have been fairly excited to see whether or not it would see a change in the blockbuster Hollywood-led Kong/Godzilla franchise that has so far left fans with mixed emotions. Most have felt that so far the series has had its ups and downs – some of the Kong films have been pretty good while the later Godzilla films have been heavy on action and light on story. Now comes Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which is supposed to be an epic beginning to a further Titan universe.
Directed by Adam Wingard (You’re Next), the film begins with scientist Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall – The Town) at a loss. Not only is her adopted daughter, Jia (Kaylee Hottle – Godvilla vs Kong), failing to fit in with her new surrounds, but there also seems to be strange happenings amongst the Titans themselves.
Mysterious signals are being received from Hollow Earth. Kong seems disturbed and on a search of his own, while Godzilla is roaming Earth causing destruction as he looks for ways to recharge himself with radioactive energy. The behaviour leads the scientists to believe that something big is coming.
The mystery deepens when one of the Outposts in Hollow Earth stops responding to communications. Ilene and Jia team up with veterinarian to the Titans, Trapper (Dan Stevens – Beauty And The Beast), along with team leader Mikael (Alex Ferns – The Batman) and podcaster/blogger Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry – Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) to travel to Hollow Earth to find out exactly what is happening.
Wingard and his team of screenwriters do all they can to make this film accessible to newcomers to the franchise, yet somehow this still feels like a film for hardcore fans of the series only. While the Kong and Godzilla storylines are well re-capped references to characters’ back-stories, those of characters such as Jia and Bernie are sometimes kept a little vague.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the film is Wingard’s brave decision to allow the journey of Kong through Hollow Earth to be told in huge chunks without human characters being present or even telling the story in voice-over. Those parts of the film are often the most creative and are a polar opposite to the laziness that seems to occur when voice-over explains what Godzilla is doing or the exposition that Ilene gives to explain some of the events surrounding Jia.
At times during the film though you do wonder whether or not this could have been a much more powerful film if Wingard had decided to show less of the human characters and just let the events surrounding Kong and Godzilla play out for the audience… It would have been a brave decision, but certainly something that would have set this film apart from any other action film released in recent years.
The positive to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is that the stories around Jia and the multiple Earths are creative; the downside is that it isn’t always brought to the audience in the best way. Even the action sequences are again inventive but way too short. Even hardened fans of the franchise may wish that the final battle sequence was a little longer as it felt like a big build up to something that deserved a much larger finale.
Most audience members will find Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire to be at least interesting. At times it is creative, while occasionally it is also lazy. The one thing everyone will agree with though is that Kong’s storyline here is a lot more entertaining than Godzilla’s, while the final battle should have been a lot longer. Still, the film is entertaining and hopefully will lead to something bigger in the future.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is currently screening in Phuket and is rated ‘G’
3/5 Stars
David Griffiths has been working as a film and music reviewer for over 20 years. That time has seen him work in radio, television and in print. He is also an accredited reviewer for Rotten Tomatoes. You can follow him at www.facebook.com/ subcultureentertainmentaus