Ryan Shoots First: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

All Hail the Kings! The Kaiju Bash Brothers are back in Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire. I know we all get a kick out of the AMC Nicole Kidman bits but we come to this place for movies like this. Much like Dune, Godzilla vs. Kong was part of the COVID era HBO Max releases and while I enjoyed that film it, like Dune, was meant for the big screen. There is just something about seeing our big lizard boy let out that iconic screech on the biggest screen you can find. There is something primal about the reaction we as humans get to watching giant monsters duke it out on giant screens. I don’t make the rules. 

GxK knows exactly the film it wants to be and it revels in it. Yes, it can be cheesy but it’s not trying not to be. Confidence in the tone of a movie goes such a long way to its enjoyment. It can lack in a lot of areas but if it is committed and self-aware about what it aims to be that helps guide the vision. It’s big, it’s ludicrous, and it’s pure popcorn but that doesn’t mean it can’t do that with purpose, heart, and plenty of style. GxK makes no bones about being a knockout-down drag-out tag team match for the ages. Perhaps one only equaled by the massive tag team match coming next weekend at WrestleMania XL with Roman and The Rock vs Seth and Cody. 

Late last year, I reviewed Godzilla Minus One and I equally loved that picture but for very different reasons. And of course, as the internet tends to do, they immediately held it up as what the West doesn’t get with their big comic book-style Godzilla. That totally misses that the beauty of Godzilla is he can do both. He can be the classic Showa era, which focuses on the chaos of Godzilla. That he is a narrative reflection of the world he inhabits and is a commentary on nuclear armament and mans nature for self-destruction, a la Minus One. And he can also be the Howsei era where any matter of crazy vs. movies came out and Godzilla did a insane tail glide across a miniature set. There is room for both the art and the fun, he’s a big lizard he’s got the shoulders to carry both. 

So what about the movie did I enjoy specifically? Well, one is the very clear characters Kong and Godzilla represent. Kong is us, he is arguably the protagonist as we relate to him. He interacts with the humans, he shows emotions, and exhibits a need to protect. He feels pain and grieves and is undermatched. He grounds us in the movie which for a 250 foot tall ape is really saying something. His character is so well-defined I would say a quarter of the movie is his story with no dialogue and no sign language. His story is told strictly through facial expression and body language, and you don’t miss a beat. I really enjoyed the risk the movie took to just let these scenes go without a human there to serve as a defacto translator saying everything he’s feeling. It was so well done. Then there is old Zilla himself. He is a force of nature, a God on earth. He is held in such reverence that his presence changes the game. We see entire armies mobilized by just the lightest spike in his vitals. It’s his world and we just live in it. For the first hour or so of the movie, we don’t see much of him as Kong carries us through the plot but man when Godzilla inserts himself the movie takes off and hits another gear. Shot after shot had me cheering and laughing at what I just saw on the screen. It was just so fun, and that’s what we need movies to be sometime. 

I had the joy of watching the film with my son who is 12 and has gone down a Godzilla rabbit hole of lore YouTube videos over the last few months so I will share with you his review as he stammered through it the entire drive home. 

“Words can’t describe it, I can’t come up with the perfect word” 

“What about perfect?”

“Yes! It had perfect action, perfect story, perfect tension, you know what even perfect doesn’t work”

“So 5 stars? 5 out of 5?”

*condescending look*

“Perfect out of 5”