A Nuanced Deconstruction of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Part One

 

By Joe Gibson

Part One of Three

In following the discourse on Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, I have noticed a startling lack of nuance.  Apologists are motivated to say that every plot issue in the film is actually fine, and naysayers are motivated to say every merit of the film is actually bad.  This movie has sizable flaws and also merits.  We here at Plan9Crunch are devoted to cult films, often picking out the merits amongst a very flawed product, so we are uniquely suited to be able to explore this movie in all of its nuance.  GxK is a malformed puppy, as Plan9Crunch coblogger Steve D Stones would say, and it is one I will cherish, defend and chide when appropriate.

 

A couple disclaimers before we begin.  I will be analyzing this film from the perspective of Kong and Suko being the primary characters, Ilene Andrews, Jia, Bernie and Trapper being secondary characters involved in a subplot, and Mikael, Hampton, the Iwi Queen and submarine and Outpost One crews as tertiary characters.  The reason this is important is that these different levels of importance come with different obligations on the film's part.  

 

The primary character usually should be dynamic and grow or regress along a determined arc (except in such cases where the lead is deliberately static; the secondary cast must then learn those lessons from the lead, such as in many adaptations of Jesus’ ministry).  The secondary cast should support the primary, reflecting their journey or at the least not contradicting it.  Many films have a variety of subplots.  In a classic Agatha Christie mystery, there will often be the main plot of solving the murder as well as romantic and antagonistic subplots usually not involving the lead investigators but the suspects.  Internal consistency is important but technically speaking not as crucial.  Finally, tertiary characters show up more as plot devices.  We should not expect advanced characterization for a cabby who serves only to deliver the leads to a location (if their character or function has inconsistencies, it is the least important but can still ripple out with larger problems elsewhere).

 

I will admit that the film is worse off if you consider Andrews the true lead; I have not heard arguments sufficient to come to that conclusion.  This is not Godzilla vs Kong, where Nathan Lind is set up as an unlikely hero with the persistent arc of growing to respect and take responsibility for Kong until he risks his life to save Kong in the climax as well as being a foil to the main villain Walt Simmons in how they both treat their allies and rely on luck, with Kong not doing much until the second act (see my Godzilla vs Kong review on planninecrunch.blogspot.com here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2023/06/review-godzilla-versus-kong-2021-remake.html for more information).  

 

Kong starts this movie demonstrating the loneliness that will define it and takes the most active role in the most of the movie's scenes.  The film even employs a similar tactic in its secondary characters to what Godzilla vs Kong did to muddle whether Madison or Bernie was the protagonist of Team Godzilla: divvying up the focus in enough scenes and giving the less important character the biggest climactic impact. (In GvK, much of the focus is on Madison except recognizing Ren Serizawa as the pilot of Mechagodzilla, which by all accounts she would except that the filmmakers wanted Bernie's psionic exposition to be the focus of the scene, and finally, it is Josh, not either of them that spills the drink on the control panel, briefly stopping Mechagodzilla.  Similarly, Bernie gets scenes in the middle of Andrews’ where his reactions are emphasized, such as entering Hollow Earth, witnessing the tree mimic and documenting the multiple gravity manipulations, and it is Trapper that brings in the Vertacines, briefly stopping Skar King and Shimo, not Andrews or Bernie).

 

The second disclaimer I want to give is that Trapper, fan favorite as he is, is by no means the best character in the film.  People have been saying this because he is fun, but that is an entirely subjective assessment.  In terms of what we can show objectively with film evidence, I hope to be able to demonstrate to you that his inclusion and plot integration breaks the film's plot more than any other individual character.  The best character in this film, whoever it will be, would have to either have the least amount of problems or most ambitious and successful character writing.  I have my own pick for that that I will reveal later.

 

The film begins in Hollow Earth, focused on rather abnormal brightly colored crystals, to which nothing similar had ever appeared in the previous film.  This, as well as later oddities involving crystals of various sizes and uses, convinced people that this was foreshadowing for Spacegodzilla in a later film.  The actual answer is more mundane and should set audience expectations for the type of movie this is.  According to the film's audio commentary, the crystals made their way in early on, meant to answer Elon Musk’s criticism of GvK wondering where the Hollow Earth's light came from, but that part of the movie was cut.  Unlike GvK, which had extensive rewrites and reshoots, this movie is mostly how Adam Wingard envisioned it, but with a lot of story considerations that the crew eventually decided not to keep the explanations for.  He admits that in the commentary.  Consequently, many of this film's contrivances will emerge from removal of certain details or refusal to reedit scenes for logic over spectacle in the third act when that was possible (We will get there eventually).  What remains within this film of the crystals is basically just set dressing and two that intersect to form an X that actually are briefly framed between Godzilla and Kong, the most innovative and pointless way for a film to title drop that I have ever seen.

 

The film then shows us leafwings, a small green birdlike monster introduced in Kong Skull Island and revealed in Godzilla vs Kong to have red-skinned Hollow Earth variants.  These, along with the trees that resemble Kaiju film miniatures as well as the diversity of life big and small in the Hollow Earth will help to show off the sense of scale the film will otherwise miss set in the home of the giant monsters.  There are also instances where the film will handle Hollow Earth scaling poorly, and I will point them out too, but the leafwings are a good example.

 

From there, we pan over to a large horde of Wartdogs chasing a frantic Kong.  Many stories begin with a small action set piece that will grab the audience's attention but not overshadow later climactic events.  This is a good example of that: new monsters in extreme numbers that Kong will only be able to evade through intellect that will foreshadow his later problem solving skills.  Kong leaps over a chasm, and the Wartdogs follow him to the edge of a cliff, where he looks around nervously.  On a first watch, this is meant to put us into Kong’s shoes as he is out of his depth and cornered.  On a second watch, it can only mean that he is cautiously checking his surroundings before launching into the next step of his plan, but I would have preferred that deceptive look of worry not existing. He activates a trap, an evolution of his character and intellect that makes sense given that he was experimenting with luring enemies into traps at the end of Godzilla and Kong’s Hong Kong showdown.  The trap is very effective, skewering and burying many of the Wartdogs.  For what it is worth, the vines connected to the log part of the trap are clearly visible in the background when he is chased there.  

 

Somehow, one Wartdog corpse made it to him, and he gets the pack to drop the hunt by ripping it in half and spilling its blood and guts all over himself.  Adam Wingard in the audio commentary said that the gory dispatch of that Wartdog was meant to set the tone of the film, and, yet again, I think it does so for the wrong reason.  I still have no idea how the Wartdog got over there, and it is because it did that the sequence ends.  The scene would work without that display of spectacle because there were only three or four surviving Wartdogs, but including that moment weakens it slightly.  Still there have been no substantial issues yet.  Everything is workable so far.

 

Kong, noticing he is covered in blood, goes off to shower.  It makes sense that he would do this, and it also makes sense he would choose a home with running water given his habit of showering from the beginning of Godzilla vs Kong.  Finally, he sits down to eat his Wartdog, when his left fang breaks.  This will be very important in the larger cause and effect of the film, so it is important that this detail holds up.  When his trap claims its first Wartdog, you can see some faint discoloration around Kong’s tooth.  The level of infection we see when Trapper replaces the tooth could suggest a time skip that would mess with the film’s cohesion, except that Kong is an animal eating whatever food it can find, including dirty rabid Wartdogs, without the ability to brush his teeth.  

 

Titanus Doug, scavenger as he is now that his primary prey of spindly crab creatures are nowhere to be seen, steals Kong’s kill, and they wrestle until Kong hears the call of his species.  Kong frantically and quickly goes to the source of the sound, only to find a parrot frog, a spiny frog capable of replicating the sounds of larger predators.  Some have suggested this scene to be weak due to being too humorous, but the unexpected nature of the parrot frog is not leveraged for a joke at Kong’s expense.  We immediately see Kong’s face tighten into a scowl and he sits down dejected, sad and in pain.  We do not leave his presence until after he groans sadly.  If the movie wanted us to laugh at him, then it did a terrible job at it, especially given the abrupt nature of later physical gags such as Suko tripping unexpectedly.  I also wish to bring up that the parrot frog, as a creature within this ecosystem, makes the most sense out of anything we have seen thus far.  An amphibian with such a convincing method for appearing more powerful than it is seems like such an obvious thing for nature to select for, and its inclusion strengthens the worldbuilding rather than weakening it since this creature would not have been relevant before now but makes sense.  This sequence is also a cold open, meaning that the film has no obligation to further explore the parrot frog, even if such scenes would be interesting.

 

One more thing to mention during this segment is that Kong sports a scar on his back from where Godzilla grazed him with the atomic breath in their Hong Kong battle.  That is nice attention to detail alongside the chest scar pattern updating in accordance to his other wounds.

 

As the credits sequence begins, Ilene Andrews gives a press conference and a talk show interview, befitting the more administrative and public relations role we see her in.  A monitor shows at least 24 Titan incidents happening that Godzilla have been stopping, with that 24th, a crab monster Scylla attacking Rome.  People complain about Godzilla’s aggression in this movie because they overlooked this title sequence.  Godzilla sensing Scylla is in line with previous movies, but he is a bit too agile in their fight in such a way that renders his later evolution into the skinnier and faster Godzilla Evolved irrelevant. As we transition to Outpost One, we hear that the public is suspicious about one Project Powerhouse.  Project Powerhouse will be brought up again later very abruptly and needs more setup; this is still better than nothing.  The Outpost One staff does not have much to their characters but quip and observe the major plot points happening around them as effective exposition.  It is effective because their confusion and following of protocol feel realistic for characters to say.  Both the scene and these characters would make less sense without the dialogue.  

 

What they observe is a mysterious energy signal coming from somewhere and Kong’s Wartdog trap collapsing into a sinkhole.  The former is complicated, but the latter is surprisingly simple: the sinkhole is the inciting incident.  As far as plot contrivances go, inciting incidents usually get a pass due to one very important facet: they are not prolonging a story illogically; they are the story.  Godzilla x Kong The New Empire is the story of what happens if passage for Kong in the subterranean realm forms.

 

Monarch has set up a Hollow Earth Access Point and Outpost at Barbados, where Andrews has to manage public relations, and Director Hampton follows up on Outpost One’s report, telling Andrews of the sensor array readings.  Nobody knows what these are.  We will later learn that Monarch has recordings of these dating as far back as the 70s.

 

Jia is having difficulty fitting in, having visions of events to come, withdrawing socially and generally worsening at assimilating.  As this film and the previous show, this would concern Andrews a lot, since she adopted Jia very late and unexpectedly, learned Jia was keeping secrets about communicating with Kong years into their relationship and now Jia is spiraling out of control and neither one knows what to do.  This is sufficient stakes for a subplot and will mirror Kong’s arc since both Kong and Jia will turn out not to be the last of their kind when that was previously understood to be the case. The film will ironically more thoroughly explore parental themes through Kong’s adoption of Suko as they slowly learn to work together, but, again, that is why I view that as the main plot and this a subplot.  Andrews and Jia are already at a place of trust, as we see by Andrews assuming her daughter’s drawings must be connected to the weird sensor readings from earlier and easily being swayed into letting Jia come with her into Hollow Earth later.

 

An ape destroys Outpost One, and where Outpost One is in relation to the sinkhole is somewhat important. If it is nearby, the ape could make that trip quickly before Kong notices.  If not, there is a sizable amount of time where the scouting group of apes could be locating vortices, since we will eventually learn that is the apes’ goal, and there is one close enough for Kong to get to, in fact the same one that leads to Barbados.  I think it is forgivable for a scouting party to be overly cautious especially given the personalities of the apes involved that we will later meet.

 

Andrews locates Bernie to ask for his help, active here, but she will quickly become very passive and vulnerable to all of Bernie’s demands.  As aforementioned, Monarch has a lot of samples of the radio interference that nobody at Monarch has been able to sort out, so she is bringing them to Bernie.  Given how Monarch was presented in the previous films, specifically Godzilla King of the Monsters, with all of the thorough scientists with special interests, they should have figured out the relatively simple conclusion that Bernie comes to with the help of a discord chat: that some active agent is making these identical signals at points of high disturbance as a distress signal, an SOS.  Andrews’ dialogue with Bernie confirms her higher interorganizational status, second only to Hampton, explaining why Hampton felt it necessary to inform her of the SOS signal in the first place.

 

Godzilla has been napping in the Coliseum and awakens just as Kong reaches the surface to ask for help with his toothache.  Monarch flies in independent contractor dentist Trapper Beasley on a company transportation vehicle the yellow M.U.L.E. where he lip syncs and replaces Kong’s tooth.  This introduction, as well as half of his remaining scenes, comes off as incredibly cartoonish, but his subsequent conversation with Andrews is a more down to earth catch-up about where the two are in life now.  The M.U.L.E. vehicle will pop up again in Hollow Earth by Outpost One, and knowing it is a Monarch vehicle helps smooth that over, but that information comes from the novelization and Blu-ray special features, not the film itself, which is an issue.  Kong’s tooth replacement makes sense and helps to foreshadow that Monarch has considered prosthetics for him (Project Powerhouse) since the tooth exists.  Godzilla taking a liking to the Coliseum fits with his previous home in Godzilla King of the Monsters, built by humans with an ancient aesthetic where people can observe him as he rests comfortably.

Hampton clears Andrews to make a survey team for Hollow Earth with pilot Mikael, and Andrews will invite Trapper, Jia and Bernie in rapid succession, none of those three people that should go down there and two of which ones that actively strongarm her into it.  From this point on, Andrews will only follow other people’s leads, noticeably letting Trapper do whatever wants, listening to Bernie’s explanation of the gravity manipulation, and helping Jia with everything she does.  She would be a poor protagonist, but I honestly do not find her to be a protagonist, so it is fine.

 

Mikael is set up as a stern character, annoyed by Bernie’s antics and subtly teased by Trapper, who he still seems to respect based on Trapper’s competency in making Hollow Earth voyages, something Trapper seems oddly familiar with since the biomimicry controls are in his seat.  This raises some timeline questions, since he and Andrews had reconnected in the prior scene, but she is the only character we have seen reckless enough to bring people down into the Hollow Earth just because they want to.  According to the novelization, there is 3 years between Godzilla vs Kong and this, with the HEAVs being a previous model then for an unspecified amount of time after.  Conversely, given Trapper’s Titan dentistry, he would be interested in the Hollow Earth fauna for his practice, as he calls out the Vertacines with accurate information once they appear.  Mikael thus far is a consistent character despite his minimal role, who raises no such questions.

 

As Kong separates from the human characters, Godzilla has attacked a French powerplant, absorbing the radiation spill.  Once again the exposition from Hampton and the nearby soldiers are things people would realistically say in this situation, since this is an incredibly concerning turn of events that people would want to understand.  The humans find Outpost One destroyed except for the Armory and M.U.L.E. vehicle, and it is convenient that those were not destroyed, but that is revealed later in the film, so there is no issue there yet, just an impending one.  In other news, Trapper has removed his jacket for no reason other than to eventually get bitten by a mosquito.  Kong returns home, sensing something different.  Wingard’s intent was to show Kong realizing that his house had been ransacked, but he hears a noise anyways and goes to investigate with the axe, so, unlike the crystals from the beginning of the film, the scene translates smoothly even with the cut context.  Kong investigates the sinkhole, sliding down the glowing walls with his axe.  People have questioned why his axe glows once he reaches the bottom when there was no Godzilla energy to stimulate it.  The answer seems pretty easy.  The friction of sliding down the chasm would have provided an initial jolt, and then the axe clearly reacts to blue crystal pillars at the base of the sinkhole.  Kong hears an ape cry and heads through a waterfall, crossing a threshold into the subterranean realm, a Hollower Earth inside of Hollow Earth.

 

Per the three-act structure and hero's journey, crossing a threshold in the story should denote the end of act one, and act two will largely be about meeting allies and enemies, so I will count Kong entering the sinkhole as the end of act one, since he will next encounter Suko, his eventual ally and One-Eye, a persistent enemy.  All in all, the issues that will plague this film later on have not set in yet, and this act fares well in regards to cause and effect in the plot as well as foreshadowing the characterization that will come.  I am inclined, pending better arguments, to rate this part of the film an 8 out of 10.

We will release Part Two in three days.

Valley of the Zombies: Republic does poverty-row horror

 

This 1946 Republic Pictures poverty-row horror film is a lean and mean 56-minute programmer. Ian Keith is a mostly forgotten actor today, but he was one of the finalists to play Dracula in 1931. In Valley of the Zombies, he plays a vampire-like character who forces a doctor to help him murder and get the blood he needs. Keith is creepy in the role and the film is a great, spooky hour to kill.

Keith also was considered for the role of Dracula in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, so he lost out to Bela Lugosi twice. Republic was known mainly for low-budget westerns and better-than-average serials. This film, very cheaply done, is kind of a mix with sparse sets similar to an ‘oater and enough shocks and surprises for a few serial short episodes.

Robert Livingston and Adrian Booth are mediocre as the man and woman romantic heroes, but it really doesn’t matter. The action moves so fast and there’s a really exciting climatic scene. It's odd that Keith is billed fourth in the credits. He's the reason to view this film. You can watch this film via YouTube here and of late this film has actually received a Blu-Ray release. If not above $20, it’s worth a buy.

-- Doug Gibson

The Best of Scenes and The Worst of Scenes: Gamera vs Viras

 

A Plan9Crunch essay by Joe Gibson

Gamera vs Viras is a conflicted, almost frustrating film to watch.  The tropes that will define the rest of Gamera’s Showa era are established here, such as AIP’s mandate of American boys starring alongside the Japanese boys and extraterrestrials menacing Earth, but there are still the last vestiges of early Showa Gamere here as well, as it is Kojiro Hongo’s third appearance as a prominent adult hero (though by far his least prominent role) and the protagonists here are mischievous, not entirely virtuous as their introduction is sabotaging a minisub and inadvertently endangering their scout master.  The practice of extensive stock footage use begins in this film, but it was not as refined as in later entries to the point of being distracting.  All this to say, the film fluctuates wildly scene to scene in the tone, writing quality and creativity to the point where the simplest way to describe the quality of Gamera vs Viras is in its juxtaposition.

Tone and Realism

The cold open of this movie is a remarkably effective scene of intimidating aliens stating their intention to colonize the Earth but being attacked by Gamera.  Gamera’s assault contains none of his characteristic warmth and keeps him out of focus, his face most visible only after he’s breached part of the spaceship with it.  When Gamera destroys a section of the ship, they jettison it, and when he flies around them, they attempt to extinguish his jets.  In this part, the film has put the viewer more in the perspective of the aliens, Virians/Virasians/Virases as they are called, as the commanding voice on the speaker becomes frantic then regains its composure to make some evasive attempts but ultimately seems to realize the ship is about to be destroyed.  This is easily the most destructive Gamera has been since the beginning of Gamera vs Barugon, and it is an effective contrast to have Gamera’s next scene be him warmly racing two boys in a minisub and protecting them from the second spaceship’s Super Catch Ray, as every action taken by these agents thus far is in line with their characterization.

However, a film that begins so darkly and semi realistically should not also contain a scene where the UN decides to surrender to alien invasion in order to save two children.  For those unaware, a major contributing factor for why Noriaki Yuasa, the director of most of the Showa Gamera films, made films wherein the children were smart, heroic and always had Gamera to look out for them was because he had briefly filmed at a home for abandoned children and wanted to give them a hero to look up to.  Yuasa had his own issues with adults, hence why as the series went on, there was less emphasis on heroic Kojiro Hongo type characters and more on how Gamera is willing to do anything for the children.  A world where the UN would surrender Earth to save two children is a world that arguably does not need Gamera to look out for the kids.

This film already has the Virians use Gamera’s “unusual and overwhelming kindness to human children” to their advantage, threatening to kill the kids if Gamera attacks their second ship, and the boys already take an active role in trying to escape their imprisonment, so nothing changes in the stakes if the UN were to refuse that offer.  It must be emphasized that a world that will sacrifice itself for two people strains credibility more and in different ways than giant monsters existing.  The cold open to this film already showed that it is possible to approach realism in the spaceship’s intelligent defensive moves and ultimate ill fate.

Cohesion of The Main Characters’ Arc

As alluded to, the boys in this film, Masao and Jim, are rather mischievous, especially compared to the earnest Eiichi in Gamera vs Gyaos before this, the introspective and reactive Akio and Tom in Gamera vs Guiron directly after this, and the dutiful teens that go inside of Gamera a couple films later in Gamera vs Jiger.  Indeed, their introduction to the film is wandering away from their scout troop to perform a shortsighted prank by switching the controls of a submarine, cringe at the consequences of endangering Kojiro Hongo and the friendly scientist letting them use the sub but then also laugh and spin the situation their way to be able to be the only scouts that can use the minisub (when if they had not sabotaged it, everybody would have been able to).  Once the aliens kidnap them, they learn what they can about the spaceship and try to use it to their advantage, easily some of the most dynamic protagonists of the franchise thus far.  After some failed attempts of escaping and a startling willingness to sacrifice themselves to save the world, their scoutmaster actually inspires them to repeat the prank on the Virian machinery to escape and free Gamera from the alien’s control.

 

Their selfish setup would have lent itself well to a coming of age arc where they would mature in order to achieve their victory.  During their time on the Virian spaceship, they show more compassion than before, promising to free what they think is a captive monster in a cage but is actually the Virian boss’ in his equivalent of a throne room, and, when they can finally reach Masao’s sister on their wrist communication devices, the boys are actually willing to selflessly lay down their lives for the good of humanity.  For whatever reason, it is the moral authority of Kojiro Hongo’s Scoutmaster character that encourages them to do the same prank to escape, seemingly vindicating their mischievousness.  Their arc seems to run backwards of how it should, learning a lesson offscreen with the screen time given to them embracing who they were before everything changed.  Their actual contributions to Gamera fighting Viras are minimal, just commands for actions he would have taken anyways, an awkward middle ground between Eiichi needing Gamera to save him and Akio and Tom assisting Gamera in battle by launching a rocket for him to use.

Creativity In Fight Scenes

The action in this movie is also rather varied.  Space Monster Viras, technically a combination of several Virians with their boss, was a rather inventive physical suit with a mess of spindly tentacles disguising the actor’s legs.  Coming off villains that were essentially a quadruped and a bird, this is something creative and new, and it is equally unique how Viras fights Gamera, where it is on the backfoot until it can set up an efficient and underhanded attack, goring Gamera’s stomach.  That is just the final battle though; outside of the cold open, all of the other action scenes in this film come from the previous films, administered in a few lengthy stock footage segments recapping Gamera’s rampages in the original film and Gamera vs Barugon as well as his fights against Barugon and Gyaos.  

 

Quite distractingly, some of these clips were in black and white originally, and the film putting a blue hue on those scenes does not fix the issue.  As far as repeating the previous movie’s fight scenes, there is a slight issue with that.  While it is the contrast from those villains that makes Viras’ one short fight against Gamera stand out, the film did not need to show them again to achieve that effect.  Gamera vs Guiron features multiple of the Gyaos species, and the different way Guiron kills it sets Guiron apart.  Similarly, Jiger later on is unique simply for having so many absurd abilities that her film explores throughout three fights and an impregnation scene.

Conclusion

The highs of this movie are exceptionally high, and there was a lot of potential for the best Gamera movie yet, but the vision was inconsistent, almost to a greater extent than the original Gamera (which itself relentlessly switches between Daiei’s desire for a Godzilla ripoff competing with Yuasa’s vision of a child friendly icon).  Consequently, it is difficult to justify a favorable review of this film, when other Gamera movies used the same building blocks as this film much more consistently.  Still, this film’s place in the franchise is a major turning point and important to remember.  Without this film, the later Showa Gamera films would not have happened the same way, and Viras could not have been one of the main villains of the recent Netflix show Gamera Rebirth.