After the discovery of the Hollow Earth, the world is no longer the same. Kong inhabits its depths and searches for others of his kind, while Godzilla swims in the surface seas challenging and keeping at bay the other titans around the world, for example in Rome. In the Hollow Earth, however, strange tremors disturb both Kong and the only survivor of Skull Island, the young Jia, adopted by the scientist Ilene Andrews. The latter, to understand what is happening to Jia, relies on the conspiracy theorist Bernie Hayes and realizes her dream: visiting the Hollow Earth. Here, however, titanic monsters roam everywhere, even the plants are dangerous and above all something seems to be awakening in the depths. A prophecy will reveal that these events are linked both to Godzilla, who in fact begins to hunt down as many enemies as possible to take over their power, as well as Kong and Jia.

Fifth cinematic chapter of the MonsterVerse and second directed by Adam Wingard Godzilla and Kong: The New Empire confirms the noisy, spectacular and completely harmless transformation of the series.

The titanic protagonists, who should be disconcerting due to their size alone, are now a common sight, with Godzilla here having even been “barbiefied” by new pink-fuchsia shades – which should represent his increased power but seem more what else is a ploy to sell new toys. The devastation of historic cities is now routine (in Rome, however, the monsters demonstrate the good taste in demolishing the Vittoriano), reduced to action brackets so as not to slow down the pace too much.

Although the screenplay is built more than ever on an endless symphony of growls, yelps, roars (and at a certain point the sharper sound produced by the return of one of the most beloved kaiju is added), the dialogues between human beings still succeed aimed at being less interesting than the expressions of beasts. Didacticism, repetitiveness and banality reign supreme and put a good two thirds of the film to sleep, which then fortunately awakens in a din of crazy proportions. In fact, the kaiju compete in the Hollow Earth and on the surface, sometimes anchored to the ground and sometimes floating in zero gravity. Their inhuman battle even spans the entire world, more or less like in one of those jokes where one supposes that by digging into the ground you can emerge all the way to China. Here instead you cross the Hollow Earth, passing from the Pyramids of Egypt to the beaches of Brazil – but the best use of a monument is won by the Colosseum, mistaken by Godzilla for a comfortable bunk where he can roll up and rest blissfully.

Wingard proves himself capable of staging a fluid action full of moving elements, yet always clear in its complex geometries. After the experience of the previous film he raises the bar by increasing the contenders and from a three-way fight we move on to a battle between more than five kaiju. On one side of the ring are Godzilla, Kong, a small Kong already seen in the trailers and the revived monster that we prefer not to reveal. On the other hand there is the Scar King who is a sort of anti-Kong; a gigantic reptile covered in crystals and with a freezing breath, who is a sort of anti-Godzilla, and in addition the numerous followers of the Scar King.