Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

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Jump to "Now Playing" Review for 'Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire'

The "MonsterVerse" that began back in 2014 was all leading to this epic moment, despite the fact that Godzilla went up against three big monsters in the last film, making it feel like the franchise kinda went all-in on things. However, these filmmakers know their audiences fairly well, and since day one, the big titan battle to end all titan battles has always been Godzilla going up against King Kong. Its this universe's 'Freddy vs Jason' or 'Alien vs Predator', pitting the two most popular of something against each other.

To everyone's misfortune, however, Covid came along and messed everything up for this epic battle, pushing it from November, 2020 to March, 2021; a time in which going to the theatre to see a movie was still a pretty big gamble for one's health. Simultaneously, it was released on HBO Max, and in a roundabout way, I managed to see it on my small screen, thus missing out on the grand scale battle this could have been. With that said, however, this was just about the perfect movie to sit down and just enjoy for the fun of it during such trying times. It was a solid slice of purely imaginative fun, and a good time not to care about realism.

The film also takes place five years after the last film, which technically actually puts this in 2024, which is just as well, as this allows the franchise to ignore Covid entirely. As time has passed since we last left Skull Island, Kong has since been captured and held by Monarch for study at a facility that allows him to roam around relatively freely. Here, Kong has befriended a young deaf girl named Jia (Kaylee Hottle), who is able to communicate with Kong using sign language. Along with her, is her adopted mother and Kong expert, Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), and together, they take good care of Kong while he's being held.

Meanwhile, Godzilla is now seen by people as an ally, albeit a destructive one who has unknowingly killed thousands. This comes after the events of the previous film where he fended off the hydra-like King Ghidorah and the pterydactle-like Rodan with he help of Mothra, whose likeness should be self-explanatory. However, he attacks an Apex Cybernetics facility in Pensacola, FL, leaving people wondering what has gotten into him, since he only really reveals himself to attack other giant threats. The leads our former player, Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown) to find answers, knowing that's out of Godzilla's character.

Madison seeks the help of her friend, Josh (Julian Dennison) along with podcasting conspiracy theorist, Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry). Their investigation eventually leads them to Godzilla's reason for attacking, and without spoiling too much (because the big reveal is actually pretty awesome), it goes back to the stinger at the end of the last film, where we see a Ghidorah head still intact. This situation also connects to Apex CEO, Walter Simmons (Demián Bichir) hiring Hollow Earth "expert", Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgård), believing Hollow Earth contains a certain energy he desires for a weapon that will effectively be able to stop Godzilla, should he choose to rampage again.

Lind soon recruits Ilene, Jia and big ol' Kong to locate and explore Hollow Earth, but unknown to the recruits are Lind's plans to find this power source. Along the way, of course, Kong and Godzilla become aware of each other, and the film delivers on its promise of a Clash of Titans. I've gotta hand it to the filmmakers for providing us with what seems like two very separate story lines that manage to connect in such a way that, when all said and done, fans of the classic material might be pleasantly surprised by. I'd also suggest keeping an open mind about the Hollow Earth theory here, just because it works so well for this particular universe.

It's fun to see how these monsters' stories come together in the end, and they come across much like a 'Fast & Furious' movie in that reality isn't a part of the game here. I've said it before, but the best parts about these movies are seeing these monsters take part in a WWE-style storyline while paying homage to oldschool video games like 'Rampage' where the name of the game was destruction. For those of us who waited things out patiently for this movie, I felt it delivered on all levels, and its probably one of the best of the bunch. My one regret was not being able to see it on a bigger scale at the time.

4/5

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