Godzilla X Kong Pulls Off Everything That Jurassic World 3 Got So Terribly Wrong
This article contains minor spoilers for "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire."
Godzilla is having a bit of a resurgence, between the unprecedented Oscar victory, the TV series that did not need to be this good, and now the movie "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire." After the world's strongest Titans battled it out and then fought against a giant robot, "Godzilla X Kong" sees the Titans taking control of the entire planet. The surface is now Godzilla's territory while Kong rules over the Hollow Earth. Things are simple and peaceful, until a secret society of giant apes decides to take over the planet, forcing Kong and Godzilla to team up and stop them.
This may be the best movie in the MonsterVerse yet, one that balances human drama with kaiju fun, expanding the world of the Hollow Earth and fleshing out the consequences and state of the world after the events of the previous films. Though "King of the Monsters" forever changed the face of the planet with all the Titan destruction, "Godzilla vs Kong" didn't really show much in terms of how the world got impacted — although the TV show "Monarch" did spend a lot of time on this perspective.
Indeed, this is a movie that shows what a world used to giant monsters would look like better than "Jurassic World: Dominion." Are these two totally unconnected franchises? Yes. Are dinosaurs much smaller than Titans? Absolutely. Did watching "Godzilla X Kong" still make me wish the sixth Jurassic movie was half as good as this? One hundred percent.
A changed world
Early in the film we see Godzilla fight some Titan on the streets of Rome. Rather than absolute panic (though there is still terror in the streets from people running away from the giant lizard), the government officials and military seem prepared and ready to roll. This is far from the same disorganized, unprepared Monarch we saw recently in the TV show and was powerless to stop the Titans. Here we see Monarch already working with organizations and armies on standby around the world prepared for when Godzilla fights a new monster.
Granted, they don't really do anything. The humans are there mostly for show. Still, it does illustrate how much the world has grown used to Godzilla and his whims that they no longer try to stop him if, say, he decides to use the Roman Colosseum as his little bed not once, but twice in the film. It turns out the King of the Monsters is as obsessed with the Roman Empire as men on the internet. Unlike men on the internet, Godzilla can simply show up and demand to be left alone for a private tour (or nap) at the Colosseum and the entire country has to simply accept it as fact or face its potential destruction.
"Jurassic World: Dominion" promised to show how a world changes and becomes used to having dinosaurs roaming around amongst people, but instead it quickly devolves into just another park on a remote location (and also a random and terrible tale about locusts). "Godzilla X Kong" shows how humans simply accepted their role as ants and welcomed their Titan overlords, letting them crash on historical monuments whenever they want and just play support for them when the time comes.
A prehistoric world
Then there's Kong. Though the monsters are the stars of each movie in the MonsterVerse, this is the first film that truly feels like it has an actual storyline for one of them. "Godzilla X Kong" the film opens with Kong as he lives the bachelor life. We see him hunt, get into a fight, and go back to his empty bachelor pad of a cave that is the titan equivalent of having an empty living room with just a TV and an Xbox on the floor.
Kong is on screen for most of the movie, and is devoid of dialogue, yet his scenes do tell a poignant story of a creature being lonely and longing for a family. Kong's side story about encountering a Hollow Planet of the Apes society, befriending Mini-Kong and then challenging the villainous Skar King tell a complete story. What's more, they bring to mind Phil Tippett's original concept for a dinosaur movie, showing the creatures in their habitat without dialogue but still telling a story. It is what we almost got in the "Jurassic World: Dominion" with its cool prologue, which is without a doubt the best part of the movie, until it was cut out of the movie in favor of more locusts stuff.
Though we all know the MonsterVerse movies to bring silly giant monster action to the big screen, "Godzilla X Kong" also delivers on the promise of a look into a world deeply changed by the existence of giant monsters, one that lets the Titans have their own story free of humans or any dialogue, and one that dares show Godzilla for the Roman Empire nerd he really is.