Toho Studios planned to sequelize King Kong vs Godzilla. Such fell to the wayside, but that hasn't stopped Legendary Films from continuing their clashes.
Director Adam (V/H/S) Wingard's Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which he wrote with Terry Rossio, Jeremy Slater and Simon Barrett, picks up where Wingard's Godzilla vs Kong left off, introducing a new calamity that forces the titular duo to rejoin.
The renewed team-up occurs due to an orangutan-like Skar King being stirred from the deep depths of Hollow Earth. He was a bastard in prehistoric times when he ruled a boundless, creature-feature empire, and for having been imprisoned over the vast "eons," has grown much surlier. Shimo is his coerced "pet," an icy sort of ankylosaurus/stegosaurus, who Skar uses to seize control.
Godzilla and Kong must prevent the mounting assault, with the great ape gaining more screen time than his finned costar. Their quest for victory comprises a thunderous path, albeit with a generous sum of sweetness shoehorned in, thanks to Kong's feisty, adopted son.
For continuity, several of the previous chapter's cast return: Rebecca (Iron Man 3) Hall's Ilene Andrews, Brian Tyree Henry's Bernie Hayes and Kaylee Hottle's Jai. Dan Stevens joins the group as a dynamic veterinarian named Trapper, capable of mending monster wounds. Though these humans play an important role in the adventure, they take an understandable back seat to tale's Titans, in particular the cyborg-gloved Kong, who the humans nudge to squash the adversity.
In truth, Kong doesn't need much nudging and nor does Godzilla, for their sense of duty is innate, leaving them to mimic Batman and Superman or Captain America and Ironman on a save-the-day stint. New Empire is, therefore, more of a special-effects-laden, comic-book tale than one of conscientious contemplation, with broad strokes of Planet of the Apes and Quest for Fire, padded by classic rock. On this basis, for all the grim demolition it delivers, New Empire rolls with mish-mashed levity. And why not? As Toho taught us, there's nothing wrong with fun for fun's sake, in particular when combative colossuses participate.
With this said, New Empire smacks of Ishiro Honda's sprightly, Cain-and-Abel War of the Gargantuas (or on a more fundamental level, Willis O'Brien's founding concept, King Kong vs Frankenstein/Prometheus), where two hairy behemoths slug it out. New Empire also inserts aspects of Destroy All Monsters (with a noted, though overused, Titan cameoing toward the end), so that it's quite possible a follow-up might mirror that beloved free-for-all. Then again, wee Kong is sure a cutie (just as he was in 1933), and a marginal offshoot could come even sooner.
No matter which way it turns, there are no doubt sequels in the works, but it all lies on New Empire's box-office tally to decide if and when they're made.
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