Adam Wingard's 2024 film takes the entertainment-first approach of Godzilla vs. Kong and amplifies it to a degree that leaves almost no room for coherence, human character development, or thematic engagement. It is not a work of any dramatic ambition whatsoever, but it is a work of considerable visual invention and monster spectacle, and those who approach it as a pure entertainment experience will find it the franchise's most consistently kinetic entry.
At a Glance
Director: Adam Wingard
Runtime: 115 minutes
Starring: Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns
Release: 2024
Critics Rating: ★★ (2/5 stars, maximalist monster spectacle that sacrifices coherence entirely)
Audience Rating: ★★★½ (3.5/5 stars, crowd-pleasing for those who prioritise monster action above all else)
Plot
Kong, exploring the Hollow Earth, discovers a tribe of apes enslaved by the Skar King, a tyrannical ape of considerable power who controls a frost-breathing Titan called Shimo. Meanwhile, Godzilla prepares for a threat he senses approaching, and Jia experiences visions connected to the Hollow Earth's indigenous people. The screenplay by Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett, and Jeremy Slater is the MonsterVerse's most narratively thin, a series of monster encounters and Hollow Earth set-pieces connected by the minimum of tissue required to move from one spectacle to the next. The decision to set the majority of the picture in the Hollow Earth gives it a visual distinctiveness but removes the human-scale grounding that even the franchise's most action-focused previous entries maintained. The Skar King is the franchise's most straightforwardly conceived antagonist, a figure of tyrannical authority whose function is to provide Kong with an opponent of comparable physical power rather than to generate the moral complexity that the franchise's better entries achieved with their human antagonists.
Characters
The human characters are the MonsterVerse's most marginal, present primarily to provide exposition and to react to the monster sequences rather than to generate independent interest. Rebecca Hall's Ilene Andrews and Brian Tyree Henry's Bernie Hayes return with the same energy and comic chemistry that distinguished their work in Godzilla vs. Kong, but they are given considerably less to do here, their storylines functioning as connective tissue between the monster sequences rather than as threads of their own. Dan Stevens's Trapper is the most enjoyable new human addition, a veterinarian of eccentricity and competence whose scenes with Kong give the picture its most entertaining human-monster interaction. Kaylee Hottle's Jia is given the most significant human arc, her connection to the Hollow Earth's indigenous people giving the picture its most emotionally credible thread. Hall and Henry are the most consistent human presences, maintaining the good humour and the screen rapport that distinguished their work in the previous entry despite being given considerably less material. Stevens brings a physical comedy and a screen presence to Trapper that gives the human sequences their most entertaining passages. The most rewarding creative choice is the decision to give Kong a significant portion of the picture's focus, developing his emotional life through his relationship with a young ape called Suko, giving the franchise's central monster an arc of loneliness and community that the human storylines cannot match.
Meaning / Themes
The picture makes no serious attempt to engage with the ecological or philosophical themes that the franchise's earlier entries developed. The Skar King's enslavement of the ape tribe gives the conflict a basic moral clarity, and Kong's liberation of the enslaved apes gives his arc a thematic dimension that the more action-focused passages do not always support. The suggestion that Godzilla and Kong's alliance represents a new order of Titan cooperation gives the MonsterVerse's mythology a development that the franchise's subsequent entries can build on, though the picture itself is too focused on delivering its spectacle to develop this idea with any depth.
Direction
Wingard pitches the picture at a register of pure monster entertainment that makes Godzilla vs. Kong look restrained by comparison, a tonal choice that gives it a relentless energy and a visual excess that the franchise's more serious entries would not have permitted. The Hollow Earth sequences are the most visually inventive, presenting a subterranean world of extraordinary imagination that gives the monster sequences a backdrop of spectacle. The most effective tonal achievement is the treatment of Kong as a sympathetic protagonist whose emotional journey, from isolation to community, gives the monster sequences a modest dimension that the human storyline cannot match.
Wingard's direction is the MonsterVerse's most visually extravagant, staging monster battles of extraordinary scale across the Hollow Earth's inventive landscapes with a kinetic energy and a visual invention that the franchise's previous entries had not matched. His handling of the more emotionally significant passages, particularly Kong's relationship with Suko, demonstrates a sensitivity to the monster's potential that the more action-focused sequences do not always allow him to develop. Tom Holkenborg's score maintains the propulsive energy of his work on Godzilla vs. Kong with a more expansive register that suits the Hollow Earth's visual scale.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire received mixed reviews on its release but was a solid commercial success, grossing over $571 million worldwide. Critics acknowledged the visual invention and the Kong-Suko relationship's entertainment value while noting the near-total absence of human character development and narrative coherence. It is now regarded as the MonsterVerse's most purely entertainment-focused entry, a picture that has abandoned any pretence of the franchise's original artistic ambitions in favour of delivering monster spectacle with maximum efficiency.
Final Verdict: The MonsterVerse's most maximalist and most unrestrained entry, a picture that delivers monster spectacle with a kinetic energy and a visual invention that the franchise's previous entries had not matched while abandoning almost everything else that the series' better entries achieved. The Kong-Suko relationship is the most emotionally engaging thread, Stevens's Trapper is the most enjoyable new human addition, and the Hollow Earth sequences are the franchise's most visually inventive passages. It is a picture that knows exactly what it is and delivers it without apology.