Cinematic Point Of View

Last night, we went and saw ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire‘ in IMAX and it was giant noisy dumb fun. A comic book brought to life. The kids and I all loved it.

Dan Stevens throwback action character “Trapper” brought the exact right energy to the entire thing which was just sit back, laugh, and have fun. It reminded me of playing with my action figures as a kid. You just made up all kinds of nonsense as you were playing and had a blast escaping into another reality.

Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, and the rest of the cast play their limited parts just fine and serve to explain to the audience what all the nonsense is going on around them. There are occasional calm spots that give you a brief moment of emotional connection. Honestly, it’s fine. I could have used a bit more of that but really the whole thing is so silly there isn’t much point to spending time trying to pretend it’s deeper than it is.

It’s Hollow Earth. It’s giant monsters. It’s loud, proud, and fun.

Where the ‘Transformers’ movies often spent too much time with the humans nobody cared for, this movie wisely spends much more time with the monsters. I actually found the human cast pretty charming and likable.

I loved the long stretches of no dialogue. Just monsters fighting and growling. Scenes awash in bright and cheerful purples and pinks with banging ’70s and ’80s music blasting. It’s like some pulpy sci-fi adventure paperback you’d read on a summer road trip with your family. Rainbow pyramids and lost world jungles. It moves so fast it doesn’t give you much time to think about anything. It’s just fun to see it all thrown up on the big screen.

At the end of the day the film didn’t have anything really to say except maybe lighten up and have some fun. Remember when you could simply escape into the silly world of a summer movie far, far away from the real world? It’s been a while.

‘Godzilla Minus One‘ was my favorite film of last year and quite possibly my favorite Godzilla film of all time. I love the depth of character and the terrifying vision that Minus One brought to the Godzilla universe. I am so glad that both that film and this film exist. I glad that so many versions of the Godzilla universe can exist up on the big screen.

Sometimes you need a laugh. Sometimes you need a cry. Sometimes you need to just turn off your brain and smile. Godzilla x Kong The New Empire is there when you need a mindless summer movie to enjoy before you head back into the real world. Hope you enjoy!