If you were to ask me whether I’d rather watch a Toho Godzilla movie, or a MonsterVerse Godzilla movie, I'm going with Toho a million bazillion times.
I mean, how could I not? I've seen every Godzilla movie from every era, and last year's Godzilla Minus One is my favorite Godzilla movie ever.
However, after watching Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, (which we gave a really good review!), I just have to say that if all of the future MonsterVerse movies are this good, then I might just change my tune about which Godzilla movie I’d rather watch. Here's why!
For The First Time, The Human Characters Serve The Story Rather Than The Other Way Around
One reason why I absolutely adored Godzilla Minus One was because it was very much a human story. I got really invested in all of the characters, and it got to the point where I actually didn’t want Godzilla to show up, because I wanted all of the human characters to be okay.
And, I must say, Godzilla Minus One is the first Godzilla movie that’s ever done that for me. In fact, in most of the Toho Godzilla flicks, I find the human characters to be boring, since they’re mostly just explaining where Godzilla came from, or how to defeat him.
That said, at least the human characters in most of the Toho Godzilla flicks serve the monster story. In the MonsterVerse, however, it always seemed like the monsters served the human story, rather than the other way around. We’d get all this family drama, with performances by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, or Millie Bobby Brown, and I was honestly just bored to tears because I didn’t CARE about their characters. I just wanted my stories to be focused on the kaiju.
Well, in Adam Wingard’s latest movie, we get exactly that. The humans are honestly only there to serve the story of this big war that Kong is going through. In fact, there are whole moments where there’s no dialogue for long stretches and the monsters are just communicating through grunts and eye contact (So no, it’s not that weird “talking” like in Godzilla vs. Gigan).
And you know what? I really love this. It makes the whole movie feel like it’s centered around the monsters THAT I ACTUALLY CAME TO SEE, and not, you know, some boring human characters. Wow, who would have thought that would actually work, focusing on the monsters in a monster movie?
It’s Mostly A King Kong Movie
A while ago, I wrote about how the next MonsterVerse flick should be a King Kong movie rather than another Godzilla movie, and honestly, I got my wish with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Because even though Godzilla’s name comes first in the title, this is King Kong’s movie, through and through. In fact, one complaint that I’ve heard from Godzilla fans is that there’s actually not enough Godzilla in this film, and that he seems more like a sidekick rather than the star.
But, guess what. I’m not mad at that. When I ranked the MonsterVerse movies, I put Kong: Skull Island at number 1 because I think the MonsterVerse has handled Kong better than it’s handled Godzilla. The MonsterVerse King Kong films (Kong: Skull Island, and Godzilla vs. Kong) arguably feel like they have more personality to them than the MonsterVerse Godzilla movies because Kong has been allowed to be much more expressive than Godzilla.
King Kong also seems to have more agency than the King of the Monsters, which really makes Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire work, as Kong is the main character rather than the humans. This really changes everything, since I was actually invested this time in a MonsterVerse story, rather than just waiting for the monsters to come back on the screen again. And honestly, I really don’t think that would be the case if this was more of a Godzilla story.
More Time Is Spent With The Monsters Than Ever Before
This kind of goes hand-in-hand with the last point, but it’s so refreshing that a lot of this movie is spent with the monsters rather than the people. And this is actually shocking since Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has the lowest budget of any other MonsterVerse movie ever, at a “paltry” -- which I put in quotes since Godzilla Minus One reportedly only cost $15 mil -- $135 million dollars to make.
Like, what the hell happened? It almost seems like those hefty price tags from the other MonsterVerse movies went more toward the actors than the actual special effects, which is just my assumption, but still!
This film looks amazing, and the monsters are in it A LOT. We have fights in Hollow Earth, a fight in Rome, a fight in Rio de Janeiro, we have SO MANY FREAKING FIGHTS! And they all involve the monsters, who we’re spending more time with than ever before.
I swear, I don’t know how anybody could say that this isn’t the greatest MonsterVerse movie ever, since we’re given what we’ve been asking for all this time – more of the actual monsters! It simply doesn’t get better than this.
This Movie Leans HEAVILY Into The Weirdness
Another reason why I loved Kong: Skull Island so much is because it was so weird! And I adore weirdness in my Godzilla movies. When I watched Godzilla movies with my son, I decided to start him off with Godzilla vs. Megalon since it’s one of the weirdest of the bunch, what with Godzilla sliding on his tail and Jet Jaguar.
And, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire leans HARD into the weirdness. I mean, at one point, Godzilla literally picks up King Kong and suplexes him. I’m not even joking. Godzilla actually does that.
At another point, gravity is upended, and the monsters are fighting upside down, and doing leaping punches, and it’s all just sheer insanity, but it works! It reminds me a lot of the Showa era in the Toho universe, which is one of my favorites since it made Godzilla pretty camp. And this is the first MonsterVerse movie to really go all out in that regard, making it ludicrously entertaining.
The Fight Scenes Are Incredible
Lastly, the fight scenes are just amazing in this movie. The 2014 Godzilla flick had ONE single fight. And, while it was awesome, it was so short that it didn’t make up for the rest of the movie’s shortcomings. Godzilla: King of the Monsters had more fights, but a lot of them were in the dark, and I didn’t find them engaging in the slightest.
Kong: Skull Island had some cool fights, but they were pretty brief. And, while Godzilla vs. Kong had the best fights up to that point, a lot of the movie felt rather slow just to get to them.
But, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire? Every fight is incredible. And we get so many of them! I mean, if we had only gotten that explosive fight in the end, I think I would have been satisfied, but we get like, three or four other fantastic fights before that, and they’re all super outrageous. I’m not even joking. There are probably more fights in this one movie than there were in the first three MonsterVerse movies combined!
You’re probably going to laugh, but I even got teary-eyed in the last battle, since it was so beautiful to watch Kong fighting WITH Godzilla in a two-on-two battle. I know they fought together in the last movie, but it wasn’t like this. It was honestly like Destroy All Monsters toward the end of this one, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
But, what did you think? Are you as in love with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire as much as I am? For more news on all things Godzilla (And King Kong!)-related, be sure to swing by here often.
