Abandoning the last film’s reliance on two dueling sets of supporting players, each dedicated to one of the titular Titans, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” keeps its focus on Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) and her adopted daughter, Jia (Kaylee Hottle). Jia struggles to fit in at her new school, and Andrews has difficulty balancing her work at Monarch with her newfound motherhood. Luckily for both of them, that plot is little more than window dressing for the film’s larger concern: There may be a new threat deep in the Hollow Earth that Kong cannot face alone.
Given the rules that every Godzilla film follows, the atomic lizard god works better as an enigmatic anti-hero figure than a scrappy underdog. In professional wrestling vernacular, Kong fits the “babyface” role so much better. In the last outing, the defeated Kong threw his hat in the ring to aid Godzilla in defeating a new mechanized adversary. But here, the duo is finally more of a tag team than a reluctant duo, and the narrative has to treat Kong like a “face in peril,” the good guy who takes the brunt of the damage while the audience salivates for his partner to tag in and even the odds.
We’ll avoid spoiling every beat, but the initial gist is that Jia and others are receiving some kind of distress signal from deep within the Hollow Earth. Kong is drawn to it and runs afoul of the Scar King, a nefarious primate who rules part of the terrain with the assistance of another Titan under his thrall. Even the addition of “Baby Kong” isn’t enough to aid Kong this time. But Adam Wingard does an admirable job taking what viewer wants to see the most, that “hot tag” from Godzilla, and building to it with remarkable aplomb. Some movies can take too long and pave a road too rocky on their way to the fireworks factory, such that no amount of colorful explosions will make the wait worthwhile. Without divulging any of the particulars, the climax of “The New Empire” somehow bests the final fights from “Godzilla vs. Kong,” and it’s capable of jolting even the most jaded moviegoer to their feet.