{"id":48663,"date":"2024-03-28T17:00:30","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T16:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2017187"},"modified":"2024-03-28T17:56:14","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T16:56:14","slug":"godzilla-x-kong-the-new-empire-review-a-bonkers-ride","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/godzilla-x-kong-the-new-empire-review-a-bonkers-ride\/","title":{"rendered":"Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire review \u2013\u00a0A bonkers ride"},"content":{"rendered":"

If it\u2019s carnage you want, then you\u2019ll be more than satisfied. <\/p>

By James Mottram\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 28 March 2024 at 16:00 PM<\/p>

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<\/div> 3.0 out of 5 star rating<\/span> <\/span> <\/div> <\/div>

There\u2019s a moment in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire where Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry), the podcaster who first appeared in 2021\u2019s Godzilla vs Kong<\/a>, arrives in the fabled Hollow Earth.<\/p>\n

This mysterious, uncharted terrain inside the planet\u2019s core is catnip to a conspiracy-peddling blogger like him. He starts filming it, going into a comical voiceover that Sir David Attenborough would be proud of.<\/p>\n

Maybe a better title for this latest instalment in the so-called MonsterVerse would be \u2018Life on Hollow Earth\u2019, for returning director Adam Wingard takes great pride in bringing us a blockbuster nature documentary.<\/p>\n

For great stretches of the film, we get to hang out with Kong, as the mighty ape navigates the trippy landscape that is Hollow Earth. We first see him chased by a rabid pack of beasts, who he soon leads to their doom. He\u2019s still the king of this jungle.<\/p>\n

With Kong now ensconced in this subterranean world \u2013 \u201cuntouched by mankind\u201d, as Bernie puts it \u2013 this keeps him apart from his rival Titan Godzilla.<\/p>\n

This uneasy truce keeps humans safe, with Godzilla guarding the planet from any other interloper. In a lovely moment, after an exhausting fight with a giant beastie in Rome, the giant reptilian curls up in the Colosseum as if it was his own personal sleepy basket.<\/p>

Yet Godzilla is soon on the move when a distress call from Hollow Earth mobilises him into action, accruing power as he prepares for \u201cWorld War 3\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nor is he the only one to sense this signal. So too does Jia (Kaylee Hottle), the last remaining member of the Iwi civilisation who lived in Kong\u2019s original home of Skull Island. This young deaf girl is now with her adoptive mother, returning Monarch scientist Dr Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall).<\/p>\n

Andrews decides she must descend into Hollow Earth to investigate this distress call, reluctantly taking Jia with her. Also joining her is Bernie and Trapper (Dan Stevens), a daredevil veterinarian introduced in one of the film\u2019s more amusing sequences, as he repels from a heavy-duty aerial vehicle and into a drugged Kong\u2019s mouth to extract an infected tooth.<\/p>\n

Trapper and Andrews knew each other at college, but Wingard and his screenwriters don\u2019t make the mistake of letting romance get in the way.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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