Hollywood’s return to making monster films has certainly been a wonderful surprise, since it has become increasingly clear that these films, while not always of the highest quality, usually contain an element of ingenuity and creativity that is often missing from a lot of other genres. Attempts to make the genre more formal and sophisticated have often fallen flat, because these films usually only work when there is a thick layer of irony served alongside, or at least some sense of intentional excess, whether for comedic effect or because the filmmakers earnestly believed in what they were doing. Recently, we have seen an attempt to revive the genre through the “MonsterVerse”, which began about a decade ago when the first American reboot of the Godzilla series was first produced. This was followed by a number of sequels, both on film and television, and eventually led to the collision of two literal titans in the form of Godzilla vs. Kong, in which genre auteur and critical darling Adam Wingard made his most ambitious film to date. That film now has a sequel, which comes in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, a direct follow-up to that film and its many disparate themes, and an effort to continue a story that should have concluded (at least in this form) years ago when that final showdown between the two iconic monsters took place. Unfortunately, as much as we would want to give this film credit for the sheer spectacle and the ambition behind it, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a deeply lacking effort, a film that contains very little merit outside of the visual component, becoming quite a vacant exercise in blockbuster filmmaking that is neither entertaining nor insightful, and instead becomes quite dull amongst the many similarly-themed films we have seen in recent years, which is ultimately the source of all of its shortcomings, of which there is an abundance.

One of the positive aspects of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is the filmmaking itself, which is central to the entire project and one of the main reasons the film isn’t completely without merit. This is certainly a film made by someone with a keen attention to detail and a vision that stood the film in good stead, at least enough to get it off the ground without too much difficulty. Wingard is a very strong filmmaker, and while most of his work is mostly favoured by niche audiences, his recent attempts to branch out and do more mainstream work shows a lot of promise, even if it comes at the expense of losing that slightly chaotic sense of artistic eccentricity that defined so many of his earlier works. This is a visually striking film – the design of both the characters (including the titular protagonists, as well as those on the periphery) is very strong, and proves that the industry is getting to a point where computer-generated imagery is  no longer just a tool to augment cinema, but is driving the industry as a whole, something we all knew but have only come to truly accept when we see it put to good use here. There are several flaws in the film, but very few of them have to do with the technical aspects – effective visual effects should be able to create the illusion that the viewer is watching something genuine rather than a manufactured product, and there are countless moments in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire in which we are able to get lost, which is a credit to the impeccable filmmaking, with the cinematography, effects and overall direction by Wingard being superb, or at least good enough to momentarily overcome some of the more troubling issues that begin to coalesce midway through the film.

Ultimately, the problem with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is that it feels somewhat inaccessible. Its not entirely appropriate to propose every film in a series or franchise needs to be independent enough that a viewer doesn’t need prior knowledge to understand the storyline, but on the same token, we find that a film like this is far too invested in referencing back to the previous films, and doesn’t offer nearly enough context for those who may not have seen the original films (which is understandable, considering how they’re staggered throughout the past decade, and unfortunately don’t hold much cultural cache – absolutely none of them felt like major cinematic events), or didn’t retain much knowledge from whatever viewings we did have initially. Unfortunately, this is a problem with both this film and the preceding ones – this series was clearly not designed with the idea of being a long-running franchise in mind, or at least not until midway through the run of films, which meant that everyone involved suddenly had to scramble to not only make these films, but do so in a way that felt aligned with something broader and more detailed. This film has the added detail of being somewhat unnecessary – the pairing of Godzilla and King Kong has happened before, and Godzilla vs. Kong was very ambitious in its own right. Suddenly, the excitement in seeing them together deflates, especially since the premise is far too clichéd to actually warrant much attention. Having these iconic characters team up sounds promising, until we realize this only happens in the final few scenes, with the preceding hour and a half being spent building up to some supposedly incredible confrontation, which actually turns out to be quite disappointing, since there isn’t much nuance in how the film uses these characters, and instead simply throws them into the story without any real substance, which ultimately comes to harm the film where it matters the most, which is in the narrative, which is dull to say the least, and completely lacking in the emotional stakes and resonance that defined the previous films.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a film that you would expect to be elevated from being completely lacking in value based on the cast, which is undeniably quite impressive, albeit only in the sense that everyone is doing solid work, but none of them are doing anything remarkable. Rebecca Hall is a strong lead, bringing a sense of elegance and rationality to a film that sometimes spirals out of control when she isn’t present to be its emotional and logical anchor. Brian Tyree Henry and Dan Stevens, two superbly gifted and charismatic actors, are terrific as the comedic relief, but are far too one-dimensional to actually make much of an impression outside of simply being present, which is unfortunate for two characters that had a lot of potential, but are consistently pushed into the background and never quite achieve anything particularly notable, despite having many aspects that could have been the foundation for a much stronger film had anyone involved been willing to actually use these actors as more than just supplements to the one-dimensional characters that populate the film. In a franchise that has at least had some solid performances scattered throughout, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is surprisingly lacklustre, despite having a very strong cast that could have turned this material into something far more special with the right approach to the material, which is sadly never once found throughout this otherwise middling film that could have benefitted from recognizing the talent behind this cast, as well as its underlying potential, which went almost entirely ignored throughout the production, leading to quite a disconcerting effort in wasting the supreme talents of a gifted cast.

If you are someone who is in the market for a film that is essentially just two hours of fighting between a pair of computer-generated monsters, in which the main attraction is seeing these two adversaries eventually teaming up to take on an even more powerful enemy, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is likely going to appeal to your sensibilities. For the rest of us, who crave something with more depth and better ideas, this film falls flat within the first hour, and it never quite manages to recover our interest in any discernible way. Its a squarely middle-of-the-road adventure drama, one that is very heavy with the visual effects (but at least it looks stunning, rather than simply being manufactured, which is all too common a trend), and far too loose with the narrative, which is nearly non-existent after a while. The emotions are tired and cliched, and never feel genuine, whereas the character development is quite poor and the structure of the story is so misaligned, it starts to feel much longer than its relatively respectable 115 minutes would suggest. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a major disappointment, a film that had so much potential but seemed far too disinterested in actually doing anything with it, which ultimately proves to be the overall downfall of the film, and one of the many reasons it feels so lacklustre, and fails to stand up to the worldbuilding introduced in previous films, leading to a mediocre and disconcerting effort in which nothing of value happens, and it just becomes a major frustration from beginning to end.