Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) (Blu-ray)

Adam Wingard’s 2024 film “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is the fifth entry in Legendary Pictures’ Monsterverse franchise. It picks up following the events of Wingard’s 2021 film “Godzilla vs. Kong” in which Kong relocated to Hollow Earth while Godzilla patrols the surface world fending off various Titans. A signal begins emanating from Hollow Earth that leads Monarch scientist Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) to seek out Bernie Hayes for his input (Brian Tyree Henry). Along with Trapper (Dan Stevens) and Jia (Kaylee Hottle), they travel to Kong’s realm to investigate. There, they find the Iwi, a group similar to Jia’s people from Skull Island who have knowledge of a dangerous Titan named Skar King. Kong faces off against Skar King, but barely survives. A juvenile ape, Suko, helps Kong to navigate that world. Meanwhile, Godzilla fights off Tiamat and begins accumulating new power to fortify himself. The Monarch group must help Kong to recruit Godzilla in order to fight Skar King and Shimo, a beast that has radioactive ice breath and previously caused an ice age fighting members of Godzilla’s species. The only way to make peace between Godzilla and Kong is for Jia to help summon Mothra as only a person from Skull Island can connect with Mothra. All of this culminates in a big monster battle between Skar King’s loyal apes and the Godzilla and Kong alliance.The film is fun for fans of the Monsterverse and spends a great deal of time exploring Hollow Earth and Kong’s perspective. Wingard does an admirable job dramatizing scenes of the various Titans without any dialogue, but still creating a visual narrative where the audience can understand each creature’s motivations. Each film in the Monsterverse has a distinctive color palette and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is no different. With each Titan glowing during their power-ups and Wingard using particularly vibrant colors for Hollow Earth, the film pops and visually draws the viewer into the story. The neon aesthetic and font for the film’s logo resembles the ’80s references found in so many current film properties like “Thor: Love and Thunder,” “Stranger Things, “Ready Player One,” and more. Where Toho’s current Godzilla films – “Shin Godzilla” and “Godzilla Minus One” – have more of a grounded feel despite the presence of kaiju, the Monsterverse has embraced a heightened or fantastical tone beginning with its second film. The color saturation that cinematographer Ben Seresin uses helps to further differentiate Toho and Legendary’s Godzilla franchises. Bonus features on this Blu-ray include commentaries, vignettes looking into the various Titans, and behind-the-scenes featurettes. Fans of this series will enjoy further exploring the world of the Monsterverse.

Excellent updated Godzilla and King Kong movie. Good for the whole family to watch.

Just an all out fun movie...you won't be disappointed!!!! Great characters. Too bad that cute little girl has naturally grown up some but she does a great job. Big surprise with Mothra!!!!

This movie was pretty good although not as good as Godzilla vs Kong. It's also not as good as Godzilla Minus One (which came out 4-5 months before this one) and doesn't look as good either despite costing 10x more to make.

Love the movie I ordered

Awesome movie

Good Movie.

Awesome action pack big monster movie