Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire – REVIEW

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire was filmed in the Gold Coast, Australia and is the 38^th installment in the phenomenally successful Godzilla franchise.

The first movie was filmed in Japan in 1954 and since then, new generations of audiences have mysteriously grown to love what many would call trashy cinema.

This is a sequel to 2021’s Godzilla vs Kong which proved to be a major hit at the  worldwide box office. The premise is that Kong and Godzilla must unite as one to stop a powerful adversary from destroying the world.

There’s nothing original about this storyline as the good vs evil concept is constantly being rehashed in these movies. But interest is always maintained as we sit patiently is our seats anticipating which of the world’s major cities will next be completely demolished by Godzilla, Kong and other creatures.

Hilariously, Godzilla has transformed the Colosseum in Rome into his den. He tramples much of Rome, and with the monster wars that ensure the Pyramids in Egypt are destroyed, as are mass city areas in France and Rio de Janeiro.

One has to wonder, after all these movies, are there any cities which have been left untouched by Godzilla, Kong, and company?

There are many action-packed fight scenes and what the astute viewer may notice about the CGI is not only the cartoonish tone, but also the inconsistencies in the human to monster ratio; in some scenes the monsters appear much larger and then alter in size when nearing the human subjects.

The special effects at times are also very unrealistic, notably when buildings are being knocked down, they obviously appear to be models.

However, a characteristic and possibly a pre-requisite for all movies in the Godzilla & Kong  MonsterVerse is that they must be trashy with questionable CGI, as it may be these qualities that actually draw audiences into darkened cinemas for a good laugh.

You know there’s a problem in this genre of films when the performances of the computer-generated monsters overshadow those of the B-grade human performers. Much of the acting is superficial and totally laughable at times.

There is clearly a huge market for this franchise globally and people know exactly what to expect when purchasing a ticket. If this movie provides audiences with a two-hour relief from the reality of their day-to-day issues, it’s served its purpose.

Filmmakers will continue to milk the brand for as long as people continue parting with their hard-earned cash to watch them.

**1/2

In Cinemas Now