It is always a shame to see sure values disappear.
Despite the titanic size of its most famous characters, the cinematic value of the MonsterVerse – which brings together Legendary Pictures’ monster films and series – is not that great. Still, we could trust it. The four preceding films Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire are at least entertaining. This fifth part, however, is a total failure.
The New Empire is not only weak visually, its human characters are the most uninteresting in the entire series. The DD Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) remains the big-hearted scientist with questionable judgment, while Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) remains the insufferable verbose conspiracy theorist. Jia (Kayle Hottle), the adopted daughter of the DD Andrews is cute, but her “powers” take on disproportionate proportions here.
Fortunately, Trapper (Dan Stevens) is added, a mix of Steve Irwin – the late crocodile hunter – and Ace Ventura – we even allude to it! He is so caricatured that we can only love him. And when he takes matters into his own hands to the sound ofI Was Made for Lovin Youby Kiss, we are won over.
However, everything else in the script, written by several hands, including those of director Adam Winghard, takes itself too seriously. It’s not complicated, though. Most of the dialogue only serves to confirm what we see on screen. It’s easy to imagine the poor actors delivering their futile lines in front of a green screen looking at a monster they can’t see.
Since their confrontation, Godzilla and Kong have each occupied their territory: one on the surface of the Earth on a crusade against the titans, the other in the depths (Hollow Earth) in search of his fellow human beings. The enormous gorilla discovers hundreds of his peers in the service of the Skar King, a gigantic orangutan who controls an ice-spitting quadruped dragon.
In a festival of computer-generated images inferior to those of some video games, Godzilla and Kong team up to prevent the evil ape and his dinosaur from annihilating the surface of our planet. In the meantime, Rome and the pyramids of Egypt passed there. As common as these scenes are, we prefer them to those of the world hidden beneath our feet which has lost all its magic from the previous film. Hollow Earth is dull and artificial. It’s heartbreaking. We will have to fall back on Godzilla Minus One.
Indoors
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Action
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
(V. F.: Godzilla and Kong – The New Empire)
Adam Winghard
With Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens
1:55 a.m.