Turns out, giant monsters still move the needle. Imagine that? Directed by Adam Wingard, the latest chapter in Legendary’s MonsterVerse once again unites the King of the Monsters and Skull Island’s biggest bruiser for an even wilder subterranean showdown. So which Titanic clash is this one?
Nearly a year after stomping through theaters, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is back in the spotlight — this time by dominating the Top 10 chart on HBO Max. The 2024 sci-fi spectacle has become one of the platform’s most-watched titles, reminding everyone that the MonsterVerse is basically built for the biggest screen possible… including the one in your living room.
This installment pushes the franchise deeper into Hollow Earth mythology, trading grounded military tension for full-blown kaiju chaos. The result? Neon-lit battles, gravity-defying environments, and creatures that make the 2014 Godzilla look almost restrained by comparison. The human cast includes Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, and Kaylee Hottle, but let’s be honest — this is about the Titans. When it hit theaters in 2024, Godzilla x Kong was one of the year’s biggest sci-fi events, raking in hundreds of millions globally and cementing the MonsterVerse as one of the most reliable modern franchise plays.
How Good Is ‘Godzilla x Kong’?
Collider’s review stated that Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is the MonsterVerse fully embracing its “big dumb monster fights” era — a loud, absurd, occasionally entertaining spectacle that abandons deeper meaning in favor of kaiju chaos. Ross Bonaime noted that while the human characters remain thin — often reduced to exposition machines — Kong’s arc of searching for family gives the film at least a hint of emotional grounding, drawing comparisons to Planet of the Apes. Stevens’ breezy Trapper, complete with pop needle drops and Star-Lord energy, feels like a calculated injection of MCU-style charm.
“Godzilla x Kong is a vacuous de-evolution into monster-on-monster action but also arguably the best possible version of that transition. There’s no doubt that this is fairly moronic, but it still manages to be an improvement over what we’ve seen from the last two installments in this cinematic universe. If this is where the MonsterVerse wants to head, Wingard is doing a decent job of making this into an absurd monster mash, but given where this series started, and how these characters have thrived when attempting to be about something more than just action (and recently!), it’s a shame that Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is little more than Godzilla and Kong DDTing each other into pyramids.”
Godzilla x Kong is streaming now on HBO Max.
Release Date
March 29, 2024
Runtime
115 Minutes