Director: Adam Wingard
Starring: Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, Fala Chen
Certificate: 12A
Run Time: 115 mins

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is the latest in the Monsterverse series and the sequel to 2020’s surprisingly entertaining Godzilla vs Kong. You’re Next and The Guest’s Adam Wingard is in the director’s chair again and this sequel picks up with Kong adjusting to life in the Hollow Earth as he searches for more of his kind. Godzilla, on the other hand, is dormantly sleeping in the Colosseum. However, this peace is short-lived and the two have to duke it out once again to stop a tyrannical leader destroying Earth. 

 Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a come-down from its predecessor, with an episodic quality not too dissimilar from what Marvel are currently churning out. That said, there are some striking images throughout and some of the action sequences really deliver. 

Wingard falls into the age-old trap yet again of the monsters being more exciting than the humans, with Rebecca Hall reprising her role as Dr Ilene Andrews from Godzilla vs Kong. Hall’s a fine actress but she’s saddled with some truly poor dialogue here that even she struggles to elevate. On the plus side, the wooden Alexander Skarsgard is nowhere to be found this time around. Wingard instead reunites with his The Guest frontman Dan Stevens, who plays the Hawaiian shirt-wearing veterinarian Trapper. Stevens has tons of charisma and although it’s a cheesy role, he manages to pull it off. 

 The script is pretty expository and certain plot elements aren’t fully coherent. While Junkie XL’s score for Godzilla vs Kong was largely successful, here he collaborates with Antonio Di Iorio and outside of the pre-existing themes, there’s not much here to latch onto. 

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire isn’t as outright entertaining as its predecessor was but there’s just about enough here to make it work. If you’re after action sequences with the two titans, this film will certainly reward your appetite. But there’s not much substance here and it’s saddled with poor human characters and a weak script. Also not helping matters is the fact this film is releasing shortly after Godzilla Minus One, which proved you can have a monsters wreaking havoc and an emotional human core in the same film. In terms of the Monsterverse series, it sits somewhere in the middle of the pack but certainly well above Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

⭐⭐⭐ (Good)