GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE

GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE pits the two giant monsters against a giant ape imprisoned in Hollow Earth, who wants to escape to the surface and rule the whole Earth with an army of enslaved giant apes and a giant dinosaur critter who can destroy people, animals and buildings with energy beams of ice. GODZILLA X KONG takes a while to expose the new villain and what’s really happening, but there’s lots of exciting action before those revelations, and the movie has morally uplifting themes about restoring a fallen kingdom, a mother’s love for her adopted daughter and other positive values, but marred by light foul language, intense violence and large scary creatures who attack one another and sometimes eat other, smaller creatures.

As the movie opens, Dr. Ilene Andrews is taking care of her adopted daughter, Jia, the last one of the tribe living on Skull Island before it was destroyed. Jia, who’s deaf and can only communicate via sign language, is having trouble adjusting to the modern world, however. Ilene works for Monarch, the once secret company that monitors giant creatures like Godzilla and Kong, the giant ape. Ilene specifically monitors Kong, who’s found a home in Hollow Earth, the origin of the giant creatures. Meanwhile, Jia, who has a telepathic connection to Kong, is having nightmares and visions about Kong being in trouble.

Jia’s visions seem to be related to an electrical disturbance happening somewhere in Hollow Earth. The disturbance also seems to be upsetting Godzilla’s routine of sleeping and fighting other giant creatures above ground. He starts coming out of his ocean lair hunting for nuclear power sources.

Ilene forms a team to investigate the source of the disturbance in Hollow Earth. Her team includes Bernie, the conspiracy podcaster who’s a lay expert on giant prehistoric creatures like Godzilla, and Ilene’s old boyfriend, Trapper, who’s become a veterinary expert on them, including Kong. Of course, Jia comes along because she’s the only one who can communicate with Kong.

Meanwhile, Kong continues his search for other giant apes like him and runs across a group of them, including a young giant ape with red fur. They don’t get along, but King soon takes the little fellow under his wing, and the young ape leads Kong to a hidden lair of many giant apes. Sadly, for King, the apes have been enslaved by a large giant ape and his minions. The giant ape has also enslaved a large dinosaur creature who can hurt animals and things using energy beams of ice, much like Godzilla’s radioactive energy beams. Kong and the young ape barely escape with their lives.

They head for the source of the electrical disturbances, as do Ilene, Jia, Bernie, and Trapper. The humans learn that the electrical disturbances are actually a distress signal. Also, Kong’s encounter with the mean giant ape has resulted in the giant ape following King and his new ape friend.

[SPOILERS FOLLOW] Eventually, the humans form the surface learn that the mean giant ape has a name, Scar King. He wants to lead his army of enslaved giant apes and the ice energy dinosaur to the surface to destroy Civilization and rule the whole Earth. The only way to stop Scar King is if the humans can convince Godzilla and Kong to halt their rivalry long enough to stop Scar King,

GODZILLA X KONG takes a while to expose the new villain and what’s really happening in Hollow Earth, but there’s lots of exciting action before those revelations occur, and afterwards. Some of the explanations in the movie’s second half, especially the ones involving the history behind Scar King, also seem a little convoluted.

GODZILLA X KONG has a strong moral worldview. The movie’s two main themes are restoring a fallen kingdom and the love between a mother and her adopted daughter. [SPOILERS FOLLOW] For example, the humans discover that the distress signal was created by a lost tribe, and offshoot of Jia’s Skull Island tribe. They sent the signal to alert Godzilla to come help them stop Scar King. Long ago, the tribe explains to Ilene and Jia, the giant apes were meant to protect the human race from Scar King, who enslaved the other giant apes and the dinosaur creature, which created the last Ice Age. It was Godzilla who stopped Scar King back then and imprisoned him in the isolated area of Hollow Earth where Kong found him. So, if Kong and Godzilla can defeat Scar King this time, Kong can become the new ruler of a restored Ape Kingdom in Hollow Earth, a literal King Kong. However, the two monsters will need help from an unexpected source to succeed.

The moral worldview in GODZILLA X KONG is marred by lots of mostly light obscenities and 11 light profanities. The movie also has lots of intense violence and large scary creatures who attack one another, threaten humans, destroy many buildings, and sometimes eat other, smaller creatures.