Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire-Giant Monsters Punching Each Other

At this point in the MonsterVerse franchise, I've begun judging them on merits different from those of other movies, even other Kaiju movies, such as last year's Godzilla Minus One. These later entries of the MonsterVerse franchise, with Godzilla vs. Kong and now this film, seem to unlock a more primitive side of my brain. So, while these movies lack any substance and act more like two hours of CGI giant monsters punching each other, the more primitive side of my brain accepts this, and I can't help but have a good time.

Part of what made me enjoy Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire more than I expected is how the film leans towards a more cartoonish tone than the previous movies. The monster fights here contain genuine moments of slapstick and over-the-top fight choreography that completely forgoes physics in ways I can't help but cackle and smile at. The giant monsters are also all at their most expressive here, with all the monsters from Kong to Godzilla and all manner of new monsters introduced in the film all showing so much emotion in their eyes alone. The expressiveness not only adds to the humor of the monster fights but also adds a surprisingly well-done sense of visual storytelling, especially in the bond Kong forms with the Baby Kong, Suko.

The story here is undoubtedly where the film falters. It is beyond convoluted, with the script consisting of nothing but mindless exposition, giant monster fights, and nothing else. In a way, though, it feels like the writers are aware of this, so they write the dialogue to be pure exposition nonsense that feels confident in how non-sensical it is and so use it less to tell a story and more to get from one moment of giant monster mayhem to the next through some enjoyably convoluted means.

There are more things I could criticize about this film, such as how it doesn't convey a sense of scale for these giant creations as much as the previous films did. But honestly, all I wanted to see was giant monsters punching each other in increasingly over-the-top and cartoonish ways, and I got precisely that with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. With each new MonsterVerse film, they begin to feel more and more like cinematic junk food. Mindless spectacles I can enjoy when I want to turn my brain off and watch giant monster mayhem.

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