As the monsters clash, people’s stories suffer
Latest sequel calls to mind ‘Minus One,’ pushed out by U.S. Titan
As “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” opens, the lizard king is on a European vacation. In true ugly tourist fashion, he throws his weight around, doesn’t know the local customs, leaves trash in his wake and can’t speak the language. His Airbnb is the Roman Colosseum.
He’s certainly having more fun than Kong, who is moping about the subterranean Hollow Earth, a lonely guy searching for some semblance of home, and also dealing with an abscessed tooth. As Gordon Lightfoot sings later in the movie, he’s got “The morning after blues / From my head down to my shoes.”
So “Godzilla x Kong” is exactly as you’d expect it to be: a popcorn movie with special effects that are better imagined than Marvel movies, rip-roarin’ action and monsters, monsters, monsters. It does its job.
Yet, while watching Adam Wingard’s cacophonous sequel to 2021’s “Godzilla vs. Kong,” one of the first blockbusters to emerge from the pandemic, I couldn’t help but think about Koichi, the former kamikaze pilot who faced down Godzilla to get past his wartime trauma in “Godzilla Minus One,” which became the highest-ever grossing Japanese film released in the United States a few months ago.
What was his life like after defeating Godzilla? How did his family fare in the generations since?
My mind wandered to this because there weren’t many people to care about in “Godzilla x Kong.” There are, of course, wonderful actors, most of them returning from the 2021 film: Rebecca Hall, a terrific actress (“Resurrection”) and director (“Passing”); the Oscar-nominated Brian Tyree Henry (“Causeway”); and deaf performer Kaylee Hottle, who holds the screen in nearly every scene she’s in. Ultimately, though, it’s the monsters, known as Titans, who take over. Humans become an afterthought.
As with the first film, the action takes place both on Earth, where Godzilla hangs out, and Hollow Earth, where Kong is in an existential crisis.
Dr. Ilene Andrews (Hall), a Titan expert (one wonders how soon after the first appearances of Godzilla and Kong that monsterology appeared in college curriculums, but never mind), is worried about her adopted daughter, Jia (Hottle), the last of the Iwi tribe native to Kong Island, who can communicate with Kong through sign language. Jia is getting some pretty weird psychic vibes, which Dr. Andrews and conspiracy theorist and podcaster Bernie (Henry) pinpoint as coming from Hollow Earth. Something’s brewing that is — as always — threatening humankind, and the three venture underground with Trapper (Dan Stevens), who is, I kid you not, a Titan veterinarian. (In a memorable scene, he performs surgery on Kong’s tooth.)
All creatures great and small, indeed.
There are lots more Titans. Godzilla and Kong are fated to meet again. Mothra’s in da house. Jia has a few nice moments. Halfway through, the humans recede into the background, with Dr. Andrews and crew reduced to narrating monster shenanigans instead of participating in the action.
Unlike “Godzilla Minus
One,” humans are expendable in gargantuan Hollywood creature features.
As a side note, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is the reason you can’t currently see “Godzilla Minus One” here in the U.S. Due to a contractual agreement between Toho, which created the Godzilla character in 1954, and Legendary Entertainment, which licenses the character for the U.S. movies distributed by Warner Bros., Japan’s movies can’t compete at the box office with the American films. So despite its box-office success and an Academy Award nomination and ultimate win for best visual effects for “Godzilla Minus One” — the first-ever Oscar nomination and win for a Godzilla movie — the film had to exit theaters by Feb. 1. It is still not available for home viewing.
It’s a much better movie. But I wouldn’t keep you from seeing “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.” Just arrive early to beat the popcorn line.