‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ brings that ‘kaiju’ collab you wanted

It’s the beginning of a new era of giant monster bro-dom as the two bad boys of kaiju team up in “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” featuring (finally!) a returning director in Adam Wingard (“You’re Next,” “The Guest”). The last theatrical outing from Legendary Pictures’ Monsterverse was Wingard’s “Godzilla vs Kong,” and with the new title “Godzilla x Kong,” it feels like the two icons are about to drop a long-awaited spring/summer limited edition collection of massive destruction.

As we enter “Godzilla x Kong,” the now-public Monarch organization is making progress in charting the new realm discovered in the prior movie that they’ve dubbed Hollow Earth. Progress is slow, however, since only about 5 percent has been charted, and world governments are itching to send in their own teams. Head researcher Ilene Andrews (a returning Rebecca Hall with a new haircut) is also dealing with some adjustment problems facing her young charge Jia (Kaylee Hottle) in her new school. This includes some visions and alarming drawings. Godzilla wakes up every now and then to slap down some Titan and then goes back to sleep in his crib. Kong, meanwhile, is enjoying the space and freedom in Hollow Earth, setting traps to secure his dinner. But when an outpost is attacked, Ilene investigates, along with the returning Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry) and new (and very welcome) addition Trapper (Dan Stevens), a sort of free-wheeling hippie vet specializing in Titan biology. Naturally, he and Ilene knew each other in college and used to date, because that’s a requirement in these movies. The attacked outpost, along with Jia’s visions, lead the team to a discovery that threatens to upset the balance of power everywhere.

Core team

Refreshingly, Wingard and his cowriters have streamlined the human characters down to this core team: we don’t really have to deal with an ensemble in various locations/timezones like we did with the previous Monsterverse movies; we don’t have to deal with a military presence, it’s all just Monarch, particularly, our ragtag bunch. This keeps the runtime at a surprising 115 minutes, and allows the film to move briskly, since its antagonist is also a Titan. The Scar King’s backstory gets narrated by Ilene when they run into a tribe of Jia’s people from Skull Island, and Kong’s own plot has him encounter a tribe of apes led by the Scar King. After receiving a thrashing, he retreats and seeks help, both from his human buddies and kaiju bro. He’s also picked up a little sidekick on the way. Certain plot elements will not be unfamiliar to those who love “How to Train Your Dragon 2.”

Wingard continues to embrace things you can really only do with a kaiju movie, and with multiple monsters you have a playground where you can demolish world landmarks like the Great Pyramids, or Rio de Janeiro or the Parthenon. Previous movies had that, sure, but Wingard isn’t afraid to showcase these massive behemoths flexing some moves straight out of a WWE special, from a suplex to an atomic drop. Some of the combat is cleverly choreographed and shows a dynamism and energy that shows the creators are just as excited with their playthings as they should be.

Drawback

The drawback of having Kong relegated to the Hollow Earth was that his scale was somewhat diminished when compared to the equally massive natural vistas, but right when that starts becoming stale he emerges onto the surface world to remind us that these guys are taller than skyscrapers and giving us that necessary sense of awe. If you’re watching it in 3D, the scenes where they play with gravity inside Hollow Earth are most effective, especially in Trapper’s ship and you don’t know which way is up.

It’s a little surprising that the just-concluded “Monarch” TV show that Legendary produced has almost no bearing on this; none of the characters appear, which seemed to be the point of the show in expanding the lore of the universe in the first place.

There’s also the continued benching, at least character-wise, for Godzilla, here basically a sleepy dude who wakes up when baddies need a shellacking. While Kong gets an arc where he discovers he is not the last of his kind and actually has to duel with the Scar King to become the alpha of this new tribe of apes, Godzilla just … eats and sleeps when not throwing down.

Perhaps it is best Godzilla remains unknowable, an avenging god of wrath; perhaps his mystique will weaken. Kong’s expressiveness, even his cinematic origins have always lent him to being the one who would have a relationship with humans.

Whether Wingard will go on with the Monsterverse remains to be seen, but if we continue to see him utilizing a toolbox of fun monster battles with the occasional jab at comedy, it should continue to be entertaining.