Godzilla x Kong
IMDb Rating
75K+
IMDb Votes
53%
Rotten Tomatoes
$572M
Box Office
Synopsis & Review
Kong, ruling over the Hollow Earth, discovers a hidden civilization that holds the secret to the Titans' origins — and an unsettling threat that finally drives Godzilla and Kong to join forces. As an ancient, ruthless ape tyrant known as Skar King awakens an enslaved, ice-breathing relative of Godzilla called Shimo, the two Titans must overcome a colossal new adversary, hidden for eons, that the discovery has unleashed on the surface world.
By its fifth entry, Legendary's MonsterVerse has fully committed to the proposition that audiences just want to watch Godzilla and Kong punch increasingly absurd things, and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire delivers that promise with a clean conscience and very little else on its mind. Director Adam Wingard, returning from 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong, leans even further into garish color and frictionless spectacle, introducing the icy Hollow Earth realm of Skar King — a diminutive, whip-wielding rival ape — alongside a returning human cast that exists almost entirely to deliver exposition between monster brawls. The human storylines, anchored by Rebecca Hall's Dr. Andrews and Dan Stevens's comic-relief veterinarian Trapper, remain the franchise's weakest link, generating little dramatic tension compared to the increasingly inventive Titan choreography. What the film lacks in narrative ambition it makes up for in pure scale and color, delivering some of the MonsterVerse's most purely entertaining kaiju brawls to date, even as critics largely shrugged at everything happening between them.
Why Watch This Movie?
The MonsterVerse's Most Purely Entertaining Kaiju Brawls Yet
Director Adam Wingard leans fully into spectacle, delivering Titan fight choreography more inventive and visually distinct than any prior MonsterVerse entry.
Skar King Is a Genuinely Memorable New Villain
The diminutive, whip-wielding ape tyrant who enslaves a shrunken ice-breathing Godzilla relative gives the franchise one of its most visually striking antagonists.
Godzilla and Kong's Uneasy Alliance Pays Off Visually
After years of teasing the Titans' rivalry, watching the two finally fight side by side delivers exactly the crowd-pleasing payoff longtime MonsterVerse fans were waiting for.
A Franchise That Knows Exactly What It's Selling
Whatever its narrative thinness, the film never pretends to be anything other than maximalist monster spectacle, and it executes that singular goal with confidence.
Cast & Crew
Director
Adam Wingard
Screenplay
Terry Rossio
Studio
Legendary / Warner Bros.
Dr. Ilene Andrews
Rebecca Hall
Trapper
Dan Stevens
Jia
Kaylee Hottle
Bernie Hayes
Brian Tyree Henry
Original Score
Tom Holkenborg
Official Trailer
© Legendary Pictures / Warner Bros. Pictures. Trailer embedded via YouTube.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to watch the previous MonsterVerse films first?
Some context helps, but the film recaps the core setup — Godzilla and Kong's uneasy truce, the Hollow Earth's existence, and Jia's connection to Kong — early on. Longtime viewers will get more out of the cumulative worldbuilding, but the plot itself is digestible without prior films.
Who or what is Skar King?
Skar King is a new antagonist introduced in this film — a small but ruthless ape tyrant from the Hollow Earth who has enslaved Shimo, an ice-breathing relative of Godzilla, and uses her power to expand his own territory, eventually threatening the surface world.
Is this the final MonsterVerse movie?
No official end has been announced. Legendary has continued developing further MonsterVerse projects, including additional films and television content, suggesting the franchise will continue in some form beyond this entry.
How does this connect to the Apple TV+ series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters?
Both are part of the same shared MonsterVerse continuity and reference overlapping organizations and events, though they follow different characters and can be watched independently of one another.
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