Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a 2024 monster film directed and co-written by Adam Wingard, and it is the fifth film in Legendary’s Monsterverse franchise. It runs 115 minutes. Its tagline is “Rise together or fall alone.”
That line tells you what the film wants to be: a team-up. What it delivers is a film that keeps Godzilla and Kong apart for most of its runtime, then puts them side by side for a fight that the earlier Godzilla vs. Kong already staged better.
Trailer, via Warner Bros..
Kong Finds a Tribe in Hollow Earth
The plot picks up three years after the defeat of Mechagodzilla. Kong has settled into Hollow Earth, searching for more of his kind. He finds them: a surviving tribe of his species, including a juvenile ape named Suko. After a brief first confrontation, Kong persuades Suko to lead him to the tribe’s lair, and the two bond on the way. A sinkhole near Kong’s home opens the path to an uncharted realm.
On the surface, Godzilla is doing maintenance. He kills Titanus Scylla for attacking Rome, then rests in the Colosseum. A signal from Hollow Earth changes his plans. He attacks a nuclear plant in France to absorb radiation, then heads to the Arctic lair of the Titan Tiamat. Monarch reads this as Godzilla strengthening himself for something coming.
The something is the Skar King, a tyrannical ape, and Shimo, a frost-breathing Titan. Their goal is to invade the Earth’s surface. That is the film’s whole engine, and it is thin.
Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens Carry the Human Side
The human thread belongs to Dr. Ilene Andrews, played by Rebecca Hall, and her adoptive daughter Jia, played by Kaylee Hottle. Jia is the last known survivor of the Iwi tribe from Skull Island. The signal gives her hallucinations and visions at school, and Andrews worries. This is Hottle’s final role; she died in 2026.
Andrews, Titan veterinarian Trapper (Dan Stevens), and conspiracy podcaster Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) travel to Hollow Earth to find the signal’s source. They find the Monarch outpost destroyed. Following the signal, they reach a temple that leads to a subterranean section housing a surviving Iwi tribe. The tribe communicates telepathically and lives beneath portals to the surface. The signal, they realize, was a telepathic distress call from the Iwi.
Andrews watches Jia socialize with the Iwi and tells Trapper she fears Jia will choose to stay with her people. That fear is the most interesting thing in the film, and it gets less room than it needs.
Two Monsters, Two Franchises, One Uneven Film
The film’s problem is structural, and the comparison is easy to draw.
| Element | Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) | Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) |
|---|---|---|
| Director | Adam Wingard | Adam Wingard |
| Core conflict | Godzilla against Kong, then Mechagodzilla | Godzilla and Kong against the Skar King and Shimo |
| Setting | Surface and Hollow Earth | Hollow Earth, Rome, France, the Arctic |
| Human lead | Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Kaylee Hottle | Same, plus Dan Stevens |
| Reviews | — | Mixed, often compared unfavorably to Godzilla Minus One |
The sequel repeats the first film’s cast and director and swaps the rivalry for an alliance. That should raise the stakes. Instead it lowers them, because the new villains carry no weight. The Skar King is a bully with a whip. Shimo is a weapon. Neither has the presence of Mechagodzilla, and neither gives Godzilla or Kong anything to push against.
The film also suffers by timing. Godzilla Minus One came out four months earlier, and critics compared the two often and unfavorably. That comparison is fair. Minus One had a point of view about Godzilla. The New Empire has a release date.
What the Film Gets Right
The Hollow Earth sequences look good. The tribe of Kong’s species is a real idea, and Suko gives Kong someone to protect rather than something to hit. The Iwi temple and the telepathic distress call tie Jia’s story to the plot instead of leaving it as decoration. Andrews’s fear that Jia will stay underground is a genuine emotional stake, and Hall plays it without fuss.
Dan Stevens is the film’s best addition. Trapper is a Titan veterinarian, and Stevens plays him like a man who has decided the apocalypse is a hobby. Brian Tyree Henry’s Bernie Hayes is back and still podcasting conspiracy theories, which was funnier the first time.
But the monsters are the product, and the monster fights here are serviceable rather than memorable. The film spends its middle hour cutting between three storylines that do not need each other. The Skar King and Shimo arrive late, get one big set piece, and are gone. The tagline promises a rise together. What we get is a reunion that never earns its own poster.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is not a bad time. It is a forgettable one. It is the fifth Monsterverse film, the 38th Godzilla film, and the 13th King Kong film, and it feels like a franchise running on schedule rather than on ideas. The Iwi distress call was the one thread worth pulling. The film cuts it short.
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