Sleeping dogs do not get to lie. Neither do giant gorillas or oversized reptiles.
In the new sci-fi film, 鈥淕odzilla x Kong: The New Empire,鈥 director Adam Wingard rousts a herd of creatures and pits them against one another.
The result is a convention of chaos.
From left, Dan Stevens, Rebecca Hall and Kaylee Hottle journey to see King Kong in "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire."聽
Kong, you may remember, is dwelling in Hollow Earth; Godzilla is napping at the Colosseum. As long as they鈥檙e in separate corners, everything is OK.
Godzilla, however, gets up from his nap, stomps around Europe (making even more ruins in Italy and France) and senses there鈥檚 a Kong-frontation just waiting to happen.
Kong, meanwhile, has an infected tooth and needs help. We know this because Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) has a daughter (Kaylee Hottle) who can communicate with him via sign language. To set things straight, Andrews assembles a crew (including a conspiracy theorist and a gonzo veterinarian) and zips to Hollow Earth. Sure enough, Kong has a bad bite and another set of monster adversaries. When a battle hurts his arm, the vet (played by Dan Stevens) cooks up a Kong-sized Infinity Gauntlet glove (trademark pending) and gets the big ape moving.
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All sorts of creatures (prehistoric and otherwise) start checking in. The goal is to settle them and get to Godzilla. But who first? And when?
Godzilla and King Kong meet again in "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire."聽
All of the creatures (including one you鈥檝e heard plenty about but didn鈥檛 realize was so literal) cause trouble, sending all parts of the world into turmoil.
After they do their urgent care bit, the humans are fairly expendable. Still, they stick around to see what happens and give the girl plenty to translate.
While Godzilla makes his way to Kong, we start calculating the insurance loss. In addition to ruining ruins in Europe, he levels pyramids in Egypt.
Kong isn鈥檛 as destructive (he just hangs from buildings) but he does have some nasty adversaries. If it鈥檚 Wingard鈥檚 goal to spin them off into other features, we鈥檙e in trouble. There are so many villains in 鈥淕odzilla x Kong鈥 it鈥檚 impossible for anyone to divide and conquer.
Thankfully, the film comes to an impasse and the special effects experts are on to something a little less taxing.
Interestingly, the effects in this film aren鈥檛 as good as the ones in the low-budget 鈥淕odzilla Minus One.鈥 The monsters look a bit halting. When in doubt, Wingard and company turn up the light.
鈥淕odzilla x Kong鈥 doesn鈥檛 have a strong script, either, and its work for the humans is marginal at best.
Still, if you're craving popcorn, this is your movie. It encourages binge-eating.
