Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire. M. 114 minutes. Three stars.
We've just enjoyed an almost year-long hype around Christopher Nolan's film Oppenheimer, myth-building around the science and engineering team that developed nuclear weapon technology.
While the clunkily-titled Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire might not initially seem it, it would be a great double-bill with Oppenheimer, as the two films bookend 80 years of storytelling that have helped us comprehend and process the terror man has inflicted upon himself with that nuclear power.
Godzilla, or Gojira, emerged as a monster-movie staple in post-war and post-Hiroshima Japan, a parable about the destructive power of nuclear energy. The creature has starred in nearly 40 films in the years since, produced by Japanese company Toho and a handful of Hollywood studios.
There's a whole bunch of world-building that has been going on with the Godzilla franchise. The last dozen films, both Japanese and American, have been feeding an almost Marvel Cinematic Universe approach to long-term storytelling.
For those who want to jump into this film without seeing those 38 other features, there is a terrific series called Monarch: Legacy of Monsters that recently launched on the AppleTV platform. It ties all of those films together with the King Kong movies.
Monarch is the name of the mysterious company that seems to be either behind these giant monsters, or protecting them.
In this film, which carries on from the 2021 film Godzilla vs Kong, the world powers-that-be seem have accepted that the giant skyscraper-sized lightning-breathing lizard monster Godzilla, while causing urban destruction everywhere he goes, seems to do so only in the cause of protecting the world from less well-intentioned monsters, called Titans.
He's not a fan of the giant gorilla King Kong, but Monarch scientist Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) solved that problem by, just as with feeding puppies or three-year-olds, separating them.
In earlier films, Monarch discovered another subterranean world within the core of our planet, a Journey to the Centre of the Earth situation, and Kong has been housed there.
But strange seismic activity takes Dr Andrews to this subterranean world, with a team including vet Trapper (Dan Stevens), former scientist turned Monarch truther Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) and Dr Andrews's adoptive daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle).
In this subterranean world is another giant Kong-like ape who has harnessed other Titans and plans to wreak havoc.
If only there was a giant lightning-breathing lizard around to help Kong and the scientific team save the planet.
If you love these silly monster flicks, this did sound like it was going to be a ton of fun but it doesn't entirely live up to its potential.
The performances are fine, with Rebecca Hall as strong as she always is, and Brian Tyree Henry and Dan Stevens delivering the goofy comic relief roles.
The writing isn't terrific and the setup, dialogue and obnoxious music choices that accompany Stevens' every appearance try to set him up as some kind of epic Michael Bay character. That might have worked in a full cinema, but mine was not.
It's so terrific to see Kiwi actress Rachel House in quite a decent-sized minor role as a Monarch executive. She's a great comedic actress so I was preparing to laugh every time she spoke, but she was purely the straight man, with Kong and Godzilla getting most of the film's slapstick routines.
The CGI work is really good, or at least noticeably actually finished unlike the sloppy work that ruined the last half dozen Marvel and DCU films. Much of that CGI is really self-indulgent widespread destruction of a number of cities, including Rome and Rio De Janeiro. This might be considered fun escapism if we weren't witnessing some epic real-life urban destruction on our front pages a bit too much this past week.
