Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire: 7.7/10

I’ll preface this review by stating that I in no way believe that Godzilla x Kong is actually a good piece of cinema. HOWEVER, I would argue that it is one of the most entertaining movies I’ve seen in a while. The action sequences were as dumb and over the top as one would hope for when buying a ticket. The graphics were excellent and truly made some of the scenes feel as real to life as one can get with a giant lizard and monkey fighting other monsters. There were also surprisingly some very adorable and funny scenes with Baby Kong and when Godzilla curled up like a cat in the Roman Colosseum. But a majority of the film was just straight up fun stupidity if that makes sense.

Every time I go to watch one of the recent Godzilla or Kong movies, I take relief in the fact that the movie will not take itself too seriously. If they did, the films would be a lot less enjoyable. But the last couple movies from the franchise, and especially Godzilla x Kong, have played into the stupidity of the scenarios at hand. Like when Kong is riding on top of Godzilla as they charge into battle with Skar King, they did a slow-mo shot of the monkeys jumping into each other that played into the hype of the scene, causing the audience to laugh in excitement. Or when Kong and Godzilla are fighting by the Pyramids of Giza, and Godzilla literally suplexes Kong. That without a doubt was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. I didn’t think I’d ever witness a giant lizard pull a wrestling move on a giant ape with the pyramids as a backdrop. It was amazing.

The film writers also seemingly understood that no one is really showing up to see great character work, so they rarely spent any time diving into the humans in the movie. I think that pays off in a situation like this, as everyone who bought tickets did so to see some monsters fight one another. And the movie delivers big time in that regard, with countless battle scenes that continuously build in scale and epicness throughout the movie. Looking back on the film, I don’t think I could even remember a name of one of the human characters, just general tidbits about their personality or professions, and there’s nothing wrong with that in this case. The actors did what was asked of them, which was very little, and let the full focus go on the monsters. Executed perfectly.

I have no real complaints about Godzilla x Kong. It met the high expectations I had going into the movie, and couldn’t get a higher score than 7.7 simply because no monster centered action movie should get above an 8 out of 10 realistically. So if you’ve liked any of the prior Godzilla or Kong movies, you will for sure like this one and have a good time.