Only three years after Godzilla vs Kong came out and eight weeks after Godzilla Minus One hit theaters, another Godzilla movie hit the silver screen. This time, Godzilla and King Kong teamed up to face a new threat, the Scar King. In addition to the new threat, another giant ape who was once close to conquering the surface world is discovered in a prehistoric world underneath the earth’s crust called Hollow Earth.
The movie tone-wise is a big departure from the earlier MonsterVerse outings, especially when compared to 2014 Godzilla’s more serious and grounded tone. There are a lot of fighting moves that are just silly in a over exaggerated way. That is helped by the cinematography, showing a lot more scenes from the monsters’ perspective, since the movie focuses a lot on the monsters more than the humans. There are, however, a couple of ground level shots. The movie is also not afraid to show more color in both monster design and environment design even during the final encounter.
One of the biggest disappointments of the film is the main antagonist, Scar King. Scar King doesn’t have the best build-up to this menacing antagonist he is supposed to be. A lot of Scar King’s actions are told through tales and there is barely anything showing Scar King’s action, which breaks the simple writing rule of “show, don’t tell.”
“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” marks an interesting turn for the MonsterVerse who has just turned 10 years old. The more grounded tone of the previous movies has been completely abandoned for goofy monster fights. Is that a bad thing? Not really because it just depends on personal preference. But overall, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is a silly monster movie reminiscent of the Godzilla movies from the 60s and 70s.