A whole load of nothing!

<em>'Godzilla × Kong: The New Empire'</em> is not a good movie, in my opinion anyway. It is similar to its predecessor in that sense at least, this is a minute improvement on that 2021 entry mind. It's basically a Kong film though, Godzilla goes missing for large periods. There is less human to be found onscreen which is good to see, but what's added in its place with Kong is just so dull to me.

The needless humanising of Kong continues, though this time it's actually done in and around the other monsters because... well, actually I'm not sure why monsters are acting human-like to each other but, eh, the movie, I guess. That Suko young ape character is particularly annoying too, it sounded like a clown horn and looks more belonging to that one Coldplay music video.

The whole film feels like if <em>'<a href="https://letterboxd.com/films/in/avatar-collection/by/release-earliest/size/large/" rel="nofollow">Avatar</a>'</em> and the <em>'<a href="https://letterboxd.com/films/in/planet-of-the-apes-reboot-collection/by/release-earliest/size/large/" rel="nofollow">Planet of the Apes</a>'</em> reboots had a baby and that's not a positive. It felt watching that it was also taking bits and pieces from other films too, mind perhaps that's just me reaching? The best scene of it all features the two titular characters in Giza, their bits together in Hollow Earth are decent too but their opponents are incredibly lame.

Cast-wise, it's OK. Rebecca Hall and Kaylee Hottle are as fine as previously, Brian Tyree Henry is marginally improved and Dan Stevens is serviceable. None of the others are all that noteworthy to me, but that actually is a true plus for this production; last time out I wanted less humans and less humans is what we get here.

My review kinda reads as if I hate this 2024 release. I do not, there are far worse pictures out there of course. It's just a heap of disappointment. I guess I just want pure, turn-off-your-brain titan carnage from these flicks, which evidently is not what the Monsterverse is necessarily trying to do... that's probably on me.

Catching up on this franchise has made me want to even more check out the 'proper' Godzilla releases out of Japan, so there is that. As for these American ones, I like <em>'Kong: Skull Island'</em> at least...