“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” debuted Thursday, March 28. The sequel film to Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) is the fifth film in the MonsterVerse franchise. 

The film plays on the reunited characters that fans already know. The familiar faces of Kong and Godzilla feature like never before;, as allies fighting together against the ancient ice-powered Kaiju Shimu and the ape’s ruthless tribal leader Skar King. 

At the heart of this movie is unique parental relationships. Kong is on a quest to find any last relatives, and comes across a baby kong, named Suko. Originally enslaved by Skar King, Suko and Kong work as a duo to escape the dangers within the Hollow Earth. On Earth, Dr. Ilene Andrews and her adopted daughter Jia face similar struggles to assimilation. Jia is the lone survivor of the Iwi tribe from Skull Island. Jia is unable to focus during school at the Monarch base after feeling the repeated unidentified signals from the Hollow Earth. 

Dr. Andrews, desperate for any understanding of these signals, reaches out to conspiracy podcaster Bernie Hayes who we saw previously in the same role in “Godzilla vs. Kong.” Hayes eagerly accepts Dr. Andrews’ proposition to help Monarch understand the cause for the unknown signals. 

Godzilla also senses the signals and begins his worldwide tour. Leaving Rome, Godzilla attacks a nuclear power plant in France to absorb radiation to power up and then travels to the Arctic where he fights Tiamat to collect more radiation. Monarch does not understand Godzilla’s plan, while a reconnaissance mission is planned for Hollow Earth. 

These pair of scenes displays Godzilla’s true power, because Tiamat was considered a major threat to Godzilla’s quest for more radiation but the King of the Monsters easily defeated his foe. We then see a new evolution of Godzilla where he dons pink spikes and pink atomic breath, rather than the blue he has in previous film. 

The mission goes AWOL, but an uncharted area reveals the remaining members of the Iwi tribe. The group discovers the prophecy that Skar King attempted to take over the surface world and fought against Godzilla, who trapped him and the apes deep in Hollow Earth. 

This scene effectively explains the monster’s goals without dragging the story out. Although a bit of a rushed explanation, it is important to understand Skar King’s and Shimu’s backstory because they have never been in any previous films. 

The prophecy also entails that Jia is the missing piece to reawakening Mothra, who was presumed dead after the fight with Ghidorah. 

Trapper, a charismatic Kaiju-veterinarian with Monarch, assists Kong with a prosthetic battle glove to treat his wounds from his fight with Skar King and Shimu. Almost straight out of Transformers, Kong’s new augmentation gives him a key advantage in combat. 

Knowing that he needed backup, Kong lures Godzilla to Cairo where Mothra intervenes to have the duo unite.The three Kaiju battle against Skar King and Shimu in the Hollow Earth until the five of them are forced to Rio de Janeiro due to Hollow Earth’s portals. 

In the final battle we see Kong and Godzilla reign victorious with Skar King defeated. The fight displays a tag team duo of Kong and Godzilla each take turns beating the villains. Kong, Suko and Shimu all return to the Hollow Earth where Kong becomes the new leader of the tribe. Godzilla goes to rest in the Colosseum once again. 

While the future of this franchise remains unknown, Kong has finally found his family and Godzilla can sleep all he wants knowing he is the king of Earth.