Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and the duality of Godzilla’s Movie Persona

The King of the Monsters and the 8th Wonder of the World are back in the latest installment to Warner Bros. Monsterverse, their kaiju cinematic universe. “The New Empire” continues where “Godzilla vs Kong” ended. With Godzilla dominating the surface world and Kong inside “Hollow Earth”, the homeland of all the earth’s monsters, a new threat appears in the form of a giant Orangutan named Skar King, who rules a hidden tribe of giant apes like Kong. This orange ape is a brute who holds a giant ice lizard named Shimo, who has the power to send earth back to the ice age. Not being able to defeat them on his own, Kong will need the help of Monarch, the organization that worked behind the scenes in all the Monsterverse films since 2014, and Godzilla himself.  

Spoilers Ahead:

While the movie is about Godzilla and Kong, like the previous film, it focuses more on Kong  than it does on Godzilla. The King of the Monsters only appears for a certain fraction of a time compared to Kong and divides that with the human subplot that coincides with theirs. 

Many critics and audiences were quick to compare this with the more successful and acclaimed “Godzilla: Minus One” from last year, which just won an Oscar for “Best Visual Effects.” As a longtime Godzilla fan, it needs to be addressed that these two films portray two sides to the Godzilla franchise as a whole, and why “New Empire” is still an okay movie to watch.  

Throughout his 70-year long franchise, there existed two identities for Godzilla. 

There’s Godzilla the destroyer, the living metaphor of nuclear warfare and destruction, the kind that Oppenheimer preached about. Films that featured Godzilla in this style (such as Shin Godzilla and Minus One) focus heavily on the human narrative and establish Godzilla as an antagonist. These types of movies are the ones that get cinematically acclaimed both in Japan and the world.  

On the other hand, there’s Godzilla the fighter, the King of the Monsters, the long-time champion that throws punches and kicks at other monsters. This was the type of Godzilla that  began the kaiju brawls during the Showa Era, the first generation of Godzilla films that lasted from 1955 to 1975. These were the movies where Godzilla first fought Mothra, Rodan, King  Ghidorah, Mecha-Godzilla, and countless other strange kaiju. It was also the era where the first King Kong vs Godzilla happened. These were the films that featured stuntmen in rubber suits fighting each other with a large abundance of special effects, miniature sets, and explosions. 

This is what “New Empire” and the Monsterverse is basing itself off. It’s essentially creating a  “Second Showa Era.” Instead of rubber suits, we have computer generated motion capture to create these monsters.  

Like the first generation of Godzilla films, the humans are side characters. In “New Empire”, we have Jia (Kaylee Hottle) and her adoptive mother, Dr. Irene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), returning from the previous film; alongside conspiracy theorist/podcaster Bernie Hayes (Brian Tee Henry) and a new character named Trapper (played by Dan Stevens). Jia has had disturbing dreams that lead towards Hollow Earth, where the plot appears to be like that of the original King Kong, with Bernie filming the whole experience for proof of its existence. Once there, they encounter the surviving members of the Iwi civilization, the tribe that worshipped Kong in “Skull Island” (2017). Jia was thought to be the only survivor, but now it’s revealed she was not. The Iwi play an instrumental role towards the film’s climax, as they help unite Godzilla and Kong. When it comes to monster films, particularly Godzilla’s, the human plot is either 50 or 70 in terms of filler and purpose. The human plot in these films mostly serves towards the defeat of the antagonists and support for the protagonist monster. Other times, it’s there to destroy both monsters.  

Aside from our main cast, there’s a variety of side monsters that appear in this film, with Mothra even making a surprise appearance. One new monster worth mentioning was visually promoted in trailers and commercials: Baby Kong, dubbed Zuko by the film’s merchandising. He’s there for the cute factor and does have a few fight scenes. Most fans at this point dubbed the little guy as Kong’s Son.   

Overall, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” was a decent continuation of their shared universe. It’s a 3 out of 5, and audiences who saw both “Minus One” and this film need to understand that they cannot be compared to one another. Both films offer different takes on the characters. Japan will continue to make stand alone takes on the King of the Monsters while in Hollywood, and it looks like the Monsterverse will start to revive the monster brawls of the ‘60s and ‘70s, which is essentially what most of western filmmakers remember from Godzilla. The action monster in the rubber suit, the one who fought alien invaders, the monster who got cut, burned, and thrown down to the ground. This is the Godzilla many western fans and audiences  grew up with, including myself.  

The film was released internationally on March 27 and in the United States on March 29. It is scheduled to be released in Japan by Toho on April 26.