Jurassic Park III: Turning 23 Years Old

 

By Joe Gibson

 

Jurassic Park III has gone down in infamy as perhaps the worst in its franchise.  Time often gives perspective, and now, over twenty years later, there is a small but rabid cult following for this film in particular, as well as its own cult that despises this film. Here on the 23rd anniversary of this underrated film July 18, 2024, with an entire other disappointing Jurassic trilogy behind us and a new film on the way, I would like to revisit it.

 

Compared to the rest of the series, especially the first, second and fourth films, Jurassic Park III is light on the franchise staple idea of the chaos that arises from playing God with genetics. Gone is the Ian Malcolm as author insert character to state the theme while calculated contingencies fail, and also gone is the less subtle circumstance that leads a Tyrannosaurus Rex to rampage through San Diego.  It is not entirely missing, as the backstory for new antagonist the Spinosaurus hinges on a rather brief scene of exploring newer Ingen experiments, but this is mostly a family movie hearkening back to much older genre films where the franchise connective tissue is the same challenge that different characters will face and brave in different ways film to film (see Universal’s Mummy tetralogy from the 1940s as one such example of that trend where the antagonists and stakes remain similar but the heroes win in different and unique ways).

 

Indeed, upon a rewatch, it was startling to see just how many scenes from the original are homaged in this film but taken to a different logical end.  (Compare this to Jurassic World Dominion, which just recreated shots from the original with no change in context down to even the same clothing in certain scenes.)  Paul Kirby’s scene of recruiting Alan Grant and Billy Brennan plays off Hammond’s introduction in the first film but without the flamboyant displays of wealth and status (since Kirby is, after all, actually pretending to be wealthy).  Whereas Grant was speechless on the first tour when witnessing the first dinosaurs he sees, here he thinks he is in control of the situation as a simple tour guide when they pass by the first dinosaurs they will see. The Spinosaurus attacks the people in the plane by poking his face through windows and crushing the vehicle, which also falls out of a tree, similarly to the Tyrannosaurus and the car.  When Grant encounters a T-Rex, he tells everybody to stay still, but everybody else runs away this time, necessitating him to run as well.  Finally, the aesthetics of the velociraptor scenes return to the pack hunting and plotting of the original film (after the first sequel made them more like rabid play-fighting puppy littermates), but they are even more intelligent this time, shown off well in their coordination, Grant’s reactions, and the statements of other characters in regard to their abilities and new resonating chamber, a concept introduced to explain their social capacity.

 

The true appeal of Jurassic Park III is a simplified, streamlined island adventure of old with simple but consistent character arcs for Grant and some of his companions related to their specific dinosaur antagonists.  It's actually a pattern I have noticed in other Joe Johnston films, especially Captain America The First Avenger, that they will be nostalgic, simple stories with decent characterization for the leads but some plot issues throughout.  Jurassic Park III is the story of Alan Grant stuck on dinosaur island with incompetent laypeople, specifically divorced couple Paul and Amanda Kirby (who are looking for their son Eric Kirby), the mercenaries those two hired to help, and Billy Brennan, an undergraduate assistant to Alan.  It is also the story of a wimpy father gaining his courage and seemed to try to be the story of a hysterical woman taking her place as a leader and a young man trying to atone for a mistake made during the runtime (though these are more debatable in success).

 

Alan Grant’s role in JPIII is simple but misunderstood.  He acts as an extension of his character arc from the first film (now bonding with an additional two children he is under no obligation to get along with), and Johnston’s intent seems to be to give Grant a new arc where he learns to ask for help.  That is the thing Ellie Sattler tells him to do at the beginning of the movie, and the thing he finally does at the end that ends up rescuing the cast.  But I am getting ahead of myself.  Many people oppose this film’s decision to break him and Ellie up.  I am slightly baffled about that.  After the first film, I guess people must have imagined Grant and Ellie settled down into their own family; that did seem like a natural trajectory for them.  No matter what happened to break them up, it was amicable, so we still get demonstrations of their bond.  The more important matter is that Grant bonding with her child is a more powerful expression of his attitude after bonding with Tim and Lex in the first film, because it is entirely his choice to do so, not something thrust upon him by fatherly obligation.  Their first scene works as them reconnecting, which makes for effectively masked exposition in their dialogue, and the distance between them allows her to save the day but also for the island segments to carry more tension since Grant and Eric are the only characters we are really sure will survive by virtue of being returning star and child respectively.  In any case, the Kirbys look on Grant as an authority figure, and even Billy, Grant’s assistant, screws up consistently enough (running away from the T-Rex and stealing velociraptor eggs) to where the audience and Grant himself understand that he is the only trustworthy and competent character…that is until Eric saves Grant from a velociraptor horde.  This plants the seed that Grant can rely on other people, which grows further when Billy redeems himself in saving Eric (at seemingly the cost of Billy’s own life), and finally Grant phones Ellie for help in the final fight against the Spinosaurus and has to give the stolen velociraptor eggs to Amanda Kirby so she can de-escalate the final confrontation with the velociraptors.

 

Paul Kirby, as a secondary lead, begins the film a deceptive, cowardly pathetic man, unable to control his mercenaries, holding fast to Grant’s advice in ways that do not reflect his own self interests, and constantly contrasted with stronger characters like Billy Brennan in the vending machine scene or Grant in any situation.  However, whereas Billy regresses into a weaker character and Grant leans more into teamwork, Paul begins to grow more confident and decisive as the situation calls for it.  His ex-wife’s reactions to his decisiveness in the second half of the film communicate that this is a side to him she has not seen before but enjoys, and their dialogue confirms as much.  In the final battle, Paul distracts the Spinosaurus from the rest of the remaining cast and holds it off himself until Grant can use a flare to set alight the oil the Spinosaurus inadvertently spilled to win the fight.  So far, the two leads have done very well in expressing their dynamic characterization.

 

The film’s focus is less so on Billy Brennan and Eric Kirby because they are stepping stones in Grant’s arc, but they have an arc to their characters even if we do not see some of the most important bits.  Billy is a charismatic person, more hedonistic than Grant (Billy wants the adventure that comes from paleontology, while Grant likes the cerebral parts) but also very concerned with pleasing Grant (his justification for stealing the raptor eggs is pragmatism to extend funding for their dig site, a more desperate pragmatism than Grant’s to comply with Kirby’s fake demands for the same end) as we also see by the half-dead Billy retrieving Grant’s hat after Billy’s sacrifice in the birdcage scene separates them.  Eric makes sense as a child character that somehow competently managed to survive.  He offers a childlike perspective on things that Grant is willing to heed, and the two can talk maturely about the dinosaurs on the island and if Grant was too harsh on Billy or not.  The mercenaries also are fine.  Only Udesky, himself not actually a mercenary, gets anything in the way of likable characterization, but he only serves the purposes of mirroring Billy as the more active and competent assistant to Paul and then also being part of the trap the raptors set to show off their intelligence.

 

Amanda Kirby is a decent character.   The issue comes in insofar that I think the film was trying to pass her off as some great character.  She starts off by far the most irrational and frantic of the group and ends the film level headed and the one character that resolves the dispute with the raptors’ Queen.  There just does not seem to be some extraordinary arc for all of this.  She just eventually found the person she was screaming to, and stuff needed to be done, so she did (the dialogue indicates that, unlike Paul, she has some degree of comfortability with outdoor situations so it’s more just a realistic “she got tired of screaming and could help out in the smalls ways she does” turn of events).  It is the matriarchal raptors that choose for her to be the point of contact, and Grant still does have to help mediate the situation with a 3D printed resonating chamber.  My idea of an ideal Jurassic sequel would not only progress Grant or whichever legacy character returns but also at least two others in order to leave the franchise off in safe hands for later on.  Paul would be a relatively easy protagonist, following his growth in this film, but the film did not do enough for Amanda, Billy or Eric to justify later importance.

 

Replacing the T-Rex in the marketing as well as killing it in film, the Spinosaurus is a controversial part of this movie.  The odd unsubstantiated theories and quirks of Jack Horner resulted in this film’s take on the uber-macho hunting Spinosaurus and scavenging T-Rex when by all accounts the opposite is closer to the truth (though we do learn contradictory information about both of these dinosaurs periodically, so it is possible albeit unlikely that history will vindicate him).  If the goal was to portray the Spinosaurus realistically, this film failed.  It behaves less like a real animal than it does a slasher villain, constantly determined to destroy the main characters until they can put up enough of a fight to send it running.  It seeks out T-Rexes for the thrill of hunting them as well.  While there is a sizable amount of time it is missing from the film where it could have eaten the T-Rex, there is no indication in the film that it eats that prey.  The instance where the obnoxious satellite phone ringtone plays to announce its presence also serves to hype it up as some horrifying monster, not any normal animal.  In that regard, the Spinosaurus is a great obstacle and antagonist to measure our heroes against.  It takes a lot of growth, coordination and luck to beat this thing, and it is very cathartic when they do.

 

That sort of half attention to realism extends to the Spinosaurus and T-Rex fight, wherein it is brief with the dinosaurs using only their best moves as would be realistic, but the actual way this fight plays out is impossible biologically speaking.  Within moments, the T-Rex has its massive jaw on the Spinosaurus’ neck, and the fight would be over right there.  As film shorthand, it is effective to set up the Spinosaurus as a greater threat by overcoming the most iconic and dangerous thing the Rex can throw at it, but it just is impossible for it to escape that, especially when the way it wins is by clamping down its weaker jaw on the T-Rex and contorting its own arms to snap the Rex’s neck, even more impossible.  If I recall correctly, the original plan following the coast battle was to have the velociraptors kill this spiny creature, and I am happy that did not happen because it would seem very strange towards this whole shorthand if the original film’s T-Rex could beat a pack of raptors but the Spinosaurus couldn’t.

 

Like Johnston’s 2010 Wolf-Man remake (initially planned to include a sizable Paul Naschy cameo), the production on this film was tumultuous with a lot of scrapped ideas.  There were multiple rewrites, notably affecting Grant’s character arc, as a persistent scrapped idea in this film was to turn him into a Robinson Crusoe island dweller, and the emphasis on the Ingen lab and aviary scenes.  More importantly, the final draft was still being written as the movie was filming, resulting in Billy’s actor negotiating the character’s survival when his sacrifice scene in the aviary was otherwise a constant throughout the scripts.  Those aviary scenes as well as the river raft segments loosely adapt the parts of the original novel that did not make it into the original film (but this film’s poor reception would motivate Jurassic World to try again on those scenes).

 

Because the only Jurassic films were this trilogy for over a decade, the debate has long persisted: which of the two sequels to Jurassic Park was better, and which approach (Ian Malcolm guiding experts who act like idiots or Alan Grant assisting idiots that act like idiots) should lead the franchise forward?  In my own opinion, I think Jurassic Park III is decidedly better than The Lost World: Jurassic Park (because the structure of TLWJP very strangely de-emphasizes some of its most engaging character arcs in the third act, and no plot hole in JPIII is more egregious than the captured T-Rex somehow wiping out an entire ship crew just so the plot could happen).  The question would be if either one actually qualifies as a good film, and now is not the time to weigh in on that question: now is the time to remember on its anniversary Jurassic Park III and what it tried to do.  You can watch Jurassic Park III on Tubi and Peacock.

 

Gamera vs Zigra: Turning 53 Years Old

 

By Joe Gibson

 

Introduction:

 

Gamera vs Zigra is enigmatic in the Gamera series. Being the last film of the original run that released right around the first unfortunate end of Daiei Film, I think it colors people's perceptions of the entire franchise as cheap kiddy fare with unlikeable child leads, poor pacing and almost no budget.  If you actually watch the Showa Gamera films, you will realize that this film actually does the same things that helped to ground previous installments but so much worse that it overwrites the public perception.  

 

The alien invasion of a talking sea themed animal, this time a goblin shark, comes from Gamera vs Viras (1968) (see our review of Gamera vs Viras here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/06/the-best-of-scenes-and-worst-of-scenes.html) to the point where every time I begin to type Gamera vs Zigra, I begin to type Viras before realizing it is Zigra (resulting in the unfortunate autocorrect attempt “Gamera vs Viagra”).  The high cost led to shooting mainly in Kamogawa Sea World, just as Daiei Film negotiated to film at Expo ‘70 for Gamera vs Jiger (1970).  I have already argued in favor for the ideas of Gamera vs Viras (and some of its execution), but I also regard Gamera vs Jiger as one of the better Showa Gamera films, especially in regards to how the Expo ‘70 setting both allows for relevant exposition integration (with scientists and geniuses on location) and raises the stakes since our characters are grouped up in a single location.  

 

Gamera vs Zigra is one of the worst Gamera films, and, again, I would argue that it unduly represents this franchise for a lot of people, because of its unplanned position as a finale as well as Mystery Science Theater 3000.  MST3K aired its Gamera episodes out of the order of the series, which would disorient the viewer, and they never got around to Gamera vs Viras in general or Gamera vs Jiger until much later.  If I were to show you Gamera vs Zigra and then pitch the premise of Gamera vs Viras and Gamera vs Jiger to you, you would assume that same execution in the previous films.  It is also important to keep in mind that the versions MST3K has access to were the notoriously bad Sandy Frank dubs and that re-edited versions of these movies were also in circulated  (If you doubt how much a bad dub and edit can change a film, just remember that the original Japanese 1962 version of King Kong vs Godzilla was a satire about consumerism, and the 1963 American version is the awkward comedy you all have seen.)

 

Here, on the 53rd anniversary of this ill-fated film, July 17th 2024, I would like to briefly revisit it.

 

Review:

 

As one more similarity to Gamera vs Viras, which was renamed Destroy All Planets for the American release, this film opens aping Destroy All Monsters, though this time it is by setting the movie in the end of the 20th century and having the aliens destroy a Moon base.  In some ways, it mirrors the opening of Gamera vs Viras, wherein the film positioned us in the perspective of the Virians being attacked by Gamera as the disembodied voice of their survey leader attempted to evade, by placing us on the Moon base, as the Zigrans attack.  However, the disembodied voice’s integration is far worse here, first wondering, in a third person limited perspective, where the Zigran spacecraft had come from and then revealing it is actually a third person omniscient voice that knows this cold open is a cautionary tale (for what, the movie has not yet detailed).

 

The child protagonist is our second narrator, and his dialogue abruptly cuts out so we can meet the relevant adults and children in this story.  This main boy is named Ken, if you wanted more evidence that this is the Showa Gamera film people remember, since all of Gamera’s child characters and even the ones in the Godzilla franchise are referred to by fans as “Kennys,” and our introduction to him is watching television instead of brushing his teeth, the brush still in his mouth.  This leads to abrupt cuts to and back from orcas doing everything the children do in the scene.  For a child audience, Yuasa’s main consideration, this is probably a relatable and attention-grabbing sequence, but when it persists past juxtaposing orcas into studying seals (going from a race to a dissection), it is tiresome. Ken and Helen, a young girl, seem to agree that sea creatures are smarter than humans, which is a decent way to foreshadow not only Gamera’s arrival but also the talkative Zigra.

 

The two main adult men contemplate the role of scientific advancement and humanity in the sea’s pollution.  The best faith assumption to make about the previous seal dissection scene is that why they are dissecting that one and saying it is so that the others can remain healthy is because of this pollution, but if you know the pollution is the cause, I do not necessarily see the reason for dissecting.  Magnitude 12 earthquakes occur on opposite sides of the planet, setting up the alien invasion.  These men are the respective fathers of Ken and Helen, who appear, steal their fathers’ food and witness the Zigran spacecraft.  

 

There is some interesting stuff as some unspecified national agency, our main characters and Gamera all instantly investigate the spaceship, the Zigrans instantly neutralize the boat of characters, and the Zigra Star Spaceship, as it is called, does actually resemble Zigra’s ultimate form both with his mounted head inside and the general shape of the fins.  We once again see Yuasa tropes of the kids recognizing Gamera as their friend immediately and the children’s eclectic interests vindicated over the less wise adults.  The woman Zigra uses as a proxy starts another earthquake, this time a magnitude 13.

 

The Zigrans were sea creatures, whose own industrial revolution polluted their waters, and they scanned throughout the universe to find a planet with water.  In the same breath, Zigra’s proxy mentions that they searched the moon before finding Earth, and all of the goodwill I had towards the perceived intelligence of these Zigrans is now moot.  They searched a barren rock for water and just so happened to find the planet full of it nearby, just at the right time to stop humans from polluting it too since Planet Zigra is 480 light years away, and the Zigrans were wasting time looking at barren rocks.  Zigra’s proxy freezes the adults, but the kids figure out not to look at her eyes and escape.  It is worth mentioning that these kids are very young, especially coming off of the teenagers in Gamera vs Jiger, so all of these deductions seem less feasible and line deliveries are far worse than is usual for the franchise.

 

Despite the reciprocated cephalopod nature, Zigra is actually a more similar alien boss to the 1967 squid-man Emperor Guillotine from Toei and AIP’s Johnny Sokko than the tentacled Viras, due to actively commanding underlings with a booming voice rather than being a twist villain in a throne that looked like a cage like Viras.  Zigra’s human proxy wants to enact genocide on the Japanese people when ordered to follow and kill the kids, but Zigra reminds her that Zigrans eat people, so they should not kill all Japanese people.

 

Gamera saves the kids, dropping them off on Niyemon Island, where people dress up very strangely, making the characters think they have traveled back in time, but it turns out Ken knew of the island’s existence the whole time.  The Ken and Helen that figured out the spaceship controls very astutely a scene ago are not of the same intellect as the Ken and Helen of this scene.  (Compare this to Masao and Tom from Gamera vs Viras, who are consistently intelligent.) There is more childish humor as the military characters are unable to get relevant information from the children because the children are too immature.  This is strange for a Yuasa film, as it is supposed to be the fault of the stubborn adults, not the wise kids, when the two cannot communicate or reconcile.  

 

Unlike with Viras, the UN actually does decide to attack Zigra.  I suspect much of the battle between the JSDF jets and Zigran spaceship to be stock footage, but, given the presence of similar compositing errors to the scenes of the Zigra Star Spaceship attacking the main characters’ boat, it is possible it was an original scene.  A hotel manager and aquarium worker are very dedicated to their jobs even while at war with Zigra, but I doubt it is meant as any social commentary since it immediately becomes plot relevant that the latter man is driving in just the right place to pick up Zigra’s proxy, who periodically switches clothes with innocents because she thinks people witnessing and reporting multiple different Japanese women during evacuation is less suspicious than there just being one that the employee that drove her there could vouch for.  She spies on the war committee, who admit that they are losing to Zigra at this point in time.

 

The chase between the children and Zigra’s proxy plays out like a Scooby Doo chase, mainly to show off the shooting environment of Sea World.  Gamera waits to actually stop the Zigran threat until called upon, in the meantime simply just feeding on the flames of humanity’s war with Zigra.  Gamera’s battle with the Zigran ship is legitimately well done, with Gamera avoiding the ship’s beam by tucking in his shell or hiding behind a rock and returning fire.  Zigra himself, the massive shark kaiju, finally emerges, and, after a less impressive battle with Gamera, reverses his policies to now vow to wipe out all humans, rather than feed on them.

 

The aquarium worker realizes the Zigran mind control freezing works similarly to dolphins being blind but maneuverable, and, while it makes sense he would know dolphins work like that, we must remember this is a Yuasa film and question why he did not let the children figure this out.  That is the exact kind of creative outside of the box thinking that leads the children to escape death in all of these films, so it is baffling that the most important example in this film (since this is what allows the scientist to be able to reverse the catatonic condition) was not from a child.  For reasons that do not make sense, repeating the process to cure the catatonic Zigran victims also cures Zigra’s proxy Ms Sugawara, who was a moon base worker brainwashed differently with different abilities (namely that of sight and being able to brainwash other people).

 

Some decent tension arises when, on the way to revive Gamera in a submarine, Zigra attacks, damages their Bathysphere and displaces them lower than anyone can rescue them.  Sparks fly as the water rises, the surfacing apparatus is damaged, and they have to hold off another assault from Zigra with only their lights.  Annoyingly, just like the worst plot point in Gamera vs Viras, Japan surrenders just to save the main characters.  Lightning just so happens to revive Gamera, who saves the bathysphere and fights Zigra in sea and on land, eventually playing Zigra’s back like a xylophone as the ultimate embarrassment to the foe.

 

Conclusion:

 

This movie is generally focused on childlike fun in as low a budget as possible, necessitating abrupt cuts that mess with the pacing, strange decisions on the parts of all of the characters that should otherwise be competent and end the film’s conflict too early, and humor that is in conflict with the high stakes of the film.  There is enjoyment to be had here, and, as a Gamera fan, I would rather this exist than not exist, but the overall product is the lowest of the Gamera series up to this point and even after (Gamera Super Monster 1980, despite its own flaws, has a more consistent tone, better action, a better soundtrack, and more consistently intelligent characters).

 

Gamera vs Zigra is a bad film, depressingly so since it reveals that the magic creativity of Showa Gamera did require some budget after all.  That fact also has overshadowed the rest of the Showa series for whatever reason, dragging down these films to the depths where, truly, only this one sits.  It is not all bad, however.  Zigra himself is a very interesting kaiju, and while the premise is derivative, his part in this story is more exciting and impressive than Viras in the previous film.  

In 2024, the only shared legacy of Zigra and Viras is their appearance in Gamera Rebirth from last year.  While Viras finally took his place as an eldritch main villain, Zigra was downgraded to third monster-of-the-week threat, but Hiroyuki Seshita found a way to reference Zigra’s 1971 speech as well as make Rebirth Zigra an impressive enough threat for Gamera.  The brief sequence of Gamera pushing through Zigra’s beam attack in order to land a physical hit made it into the Gamera vs Viras Rebirth fight as well.  You can view the original film on Prime video (though I recommend Arrow Video’s release of the Showa and Heisei Gamera films for avid Gamera fans), and you can watch Zigra’s episode of Gamera Rebirth on Netflix.

 

The Rogues' Tavern, poverty-row '30s film; review includes newspaper clips

 

By Doug Gibson

"The Rogues' Tavern," 1936 black and white film, directed by Bob Hill, produced by Mercury Pictures and released by Puritan Pictures, is one of the reasons I love film. It's just a stroke of luck, and a blessing, that this low-budget, 70-minute C-movie is still around for film fans to enjoy. It's like stepping into a wonderful time capsule, and getting a glimpse of what your grandparents watched in the 1930s before the "A" picture was shown.

Let's see some old newspaper clippings that involved this great film. Above is a newspaper ad from the The Kokomo (Ind.) Tribune, of Dec. 15, 1936. You see that starting Wednesday at the Wood theater is Rogues' Tavern. "IT'S FIRST RUN ... and its described as "A Roadside Inn Turned Into a Trap of Doom!" A few paragraphs down is a clip ad for both 'Rogues' and a Noah Beery film, 'Stormy,' in the Warrensburg (Mo.) Daily Star-Journal of May 22, 1936. I love the admission prices back then, 10 cents, 15 cents. My dad was telling the truth when he told me you could spend 25 cents, see the movies and have a hamburger way back then. Finally, a few paragraphs down we see a feature/review clip of 'Rogues'. It was in the May 9, 1936 edition of The Moberly (Mo.) Monitor-Index and Moberly Evening Democrat. It provides a feature of star Wallace Ford's life and then seques into a positive review. 

Enough reminiscing, here's the plot. Wallace Ford (Jimmy Kelly) and Barbara Pepper (as Jimmy's fiancee Marjorie Burns) are detectives heading to the Red Rock Inn to meet a justice of the peace and get hitched. "It is a dark and stormy night" with lots of whistling wind and there are quite a few eccentrics in the tavern. They include the renters, Mr. and Mrs. Jamison (Clara Kimball Young and John Elliott), a mentally-challenged handyman, Bert, (Vincent Dennis), and a collection of nervous, shady characters, including a nervous, but very beautiful Mexican lady named Gloria Rohloff (Joan Woodbury). Finally, there's also a dog, Silver Wolf, running around.

 

For reasons known only to themselves, the Jamisons deny Jimmy and Marjorie two rooms, or one if the justice of the peace arrives. The couple, who are a poor man's Nick and Nora -- for those who recall William Powell and Myrna Loy of The Thin Man series -- settle down in the lobby, which boasts a very impressive fireplace. (According to the book, Forgotten Horrors, the film was lensed at RKO-Pathe Studios, which was favored as a place for low-budget production companies that liked the fireplace as a prop)

 

Back to the film: One by one, the nervous, shady characters start getting murdered. Jimmy, with typical Wallace Ford bravado, starts to take charge of the investigation. Fiancee Marjorie, a very pretty blonde who acts a lot like Lucille Ball, tries doggedly to help her slightly sexist love interest. At first the dog is the chief suspect, but interest soon coalesces around a mysterious "Wentworth," who apparently called the endangered characters to the inn, and later a mysterious "Morgan." We soon learn that the nervous character at the inn have a history of jewel thievery.

 

That's all the plot I'll provide. This is an "old dark house" programmer, common for the era. What makes "The Rogues' Tavern" special is that it's better than the average C-movie programmer. The murders are well plotted, it' a bit goofy, Ford and Pepper are talented actors with good comic timing. My favorite lines of witty dialogue involve Pepper, after reflecting on the romantic fireplace, exclaim to Ford, "I feel so poetic, I could make love to a snowman." Ford retorts, "If that justice of the peace doesn't show up, you'll have too!"

In fact, Rogues' Tavern boasts an excellent cast. Besides Fox and Pepper, Kimball Young and Elliott were silent film stars. Woodbury wears a very slinky dress that thumbs its nose at the Hays Commission morality censors of that era. Her breasts, while not shown, are quite well defined despite being covered. The producer is Sam Katzman, who worked at Monogram with Bela Lugosi.

 

Ford starred in the legendary "Freaks" for Universal but was mostly a C- and B-movies star. He was a good actor with comic timing and may be best known for his role in the Bela Lugosi Monogram effort "The Ape Man." Woodbury was a steady actress who appeared in the Monogram film, "King of the Zombies." Pepper, who was a friend of Lucille Ball's, later in her career was a regular on Green Acres.

 

The film is fairly easy to find. It can be purchased at oldies.com and Sinister Cinema and is part of a 50-film set that can be bought cheaply. You can watch it free on the Net and it's the type of film that should pop up on Turner Classic Movies. I've been lobbying TCM to air it. The sets are better than an average C-programmer, which probably was filmed for less than $40,000.

 

The film has a lot of twists, some clever, some clumsy. It's about 10 minutes too long, particularly in the last third, with too many red herrings and static scenes. But the climax is fun, and a bizarre surprise, and the first 45 minutes are very entertaining in its mixture or murder and comedy mystery. Thanks to my friend David Grudt, of Long Beach, Calif., for providing the newspaper clips.

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

By Joe Gibson

The following is the third part of a larger Godzilla x Kong The New Empire review focused on act three.  You can read the first two parts here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/06/a-nuanced-deconstruction-of-godzilla-x.html and here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/06/part-two-nuanced-deconstruction-of.html

 

One-Eye reaches Skar King, who then mobilizes his army in the same amount of time it takes Trapper to examine Kong’s arm.  Trapper will then run to the HEAV, fly that to Outpost One, find Project Powerhouse, hook it up to a M.U.L.E., fly back in the M.U.L.E., hook Project Powerhouse up to Kong’s arm, evacuate the Iwi, fly back to Outpost One in the M.U.L.E. to retrieve the HEAV and then use that HEAV to find Vertacines and bring them back to Malenka in the same amount of time it will take Skar King’s army to go to Malenka.  Much of that happens after Suko sees Skar King and Shimo at the sinkhole.  That is bad.  It would be possible to re edit this to make more sense, but that did not happen.  I will not go over every moment that Skar King should have arrived, but just keep in mind that Jia has a costume change, the Iwi awaken Mothra, and Godzilla and Kong have a whole rematch as Skar King and his army cross a distance One-Eye could in the time it took Trapper to walk down to Kong and look at his frostbitten arm.

 

The novelization attempts to fix this pathing inconsistency by having the Iwi give Trapper an escort, but we have no reason to think that they would do anything except slow him down.  Within the Mothra temple ruins from earlier in the film, Trapper noticed that only the top steps were lacking moss, presumably due to use.  If the Iwi ever have any reason to leave the barrier of Malenka, it makes sense they would go as far as their irrigation system for water and also because that irrigation system leads back to their city if they get lost.  Whether or not you read into Trapper smelling rotting flesh in the tree mimic as there being previous Iwi prey caught in there, there is either no evidence the Iwi can navigate the flora fauna or evidence to the contrary.  Far more likely is a displaced Wartdog or any other animal is the carcass Trapper smelled, and, again as no one else smelled it, he might be psychic anyway. The novelization also lampshades the convenience of the armory being intact with an intact M.U.L.E. out front by having Trapper worry about it on the way over.  That does not fix that contrivance. 

 

I cannot tell which arm the blueprint of Project Powerhouse is supposed to be, so it may not be that they happened to make the correct arm needed so much as that they made both.  As for the material attributes of the Glove, Monarch would have been able to observe Kong’s ineffective punches against Godzilla and makeshift shields in the axe and that circular piece of building in Hong Kong, so there is not a great issue in the B.E.A.S.T. Glove being both a punch-enhancement and makeshift shield.  It is contrived that the Project Powerhouse B.E.A.S.T. Glove contains the necessary fluids to cure his frostbite, though, to be in best faith as possible, I will acknowledge that the only other time Monarch would have observed Kong near snow and ice was in Antarctica in GvK when they were confident he would not last long there (he did, in fact, start shivering very quickly), so it’s just an absurdly contrived failsafe rather than impossible.

 

I want to explain that there is a difference between Trapper, amid contrivances, bringing Project Powerhouse to Kong, and Nathan Lind in the previous movie detonating the last HEAV to revive Kong.  The latter came as the final escalation to a character arc based on attributes of the HEAV established at the beginning of the film, but the former comes in conveniently with very little buildup disconnected from any of the character arcs.  They are similar only in aesthetic and mark a noticeable downgrade from Wingard film to Wingard film.

 

In any case, the B.E.A.S.T. Glove and accompanying injections take Kong from a wounded, beaten animal back to a pumped up battle-ready warrior.  In the same way it got us on Kong’s side to see the Skar King win unfairly, it is very cathartic for the audience to see Kong returned to full health and strength, do better against Godzilla than before, and win the final battle against Skar’s forces.  That said, the arrival and utilization of Project Powerhouse this abruptly and riddled in contrivances weakens the structural integrity of those great moments.  This raises the question: would the film improve if Kong remained weakened through the end of the film?  In a way, this is almost the Titan Avengers or Justice League.  Skar King’s army would be an extraordinary threat for any individual monster, but Kong and Suko have already thinned out the available Red Stripes to a more manageable number with Evolved Godzilla and Mothra also available to help our good apes, this team-up stacking the odds against our villains and making the heroes look impressive.  Since Skar King is already weaker than Kong, a weakened Kong fighting him while Godzilla takes Shimo and Mothra keeps the other apes webbed up would carry more tension than the actual final fight in Rio (wherein during the scramble for the crystal, Skar King actually starts to strangle Kong, but the latter ape actually starts to get out of the chokehold, meaning he would have won regardless of Suko’s intervention) while circumventing the associated plot issues.  Trapper, as a simple Titan vet, could still just diagnose and attempt treatment of Kong to keep his character relevant (because of the previous gravity manipulation scenes, the Iwi organizing a makeshift sling for Kong would be feasible and help show this series’ previous theme of coexistence with the Titans).  Just because simple fixes are available does not mean we can afford to accept them, because the filmmakers chose not to implement them.

 

Kong goes to bring Godzilla down into the Hollow Earth, roaring at Godzilla, who hears it on Gibraltar, in Egypt.  Godzilla makes the trip to Egypt in record time, and they fight.  This would not make much sense without Godzilla King of the Monsters, which established Alpha calls by Titans can be heard across the world and that Godzilla uses a system of interconnected fast track tunnels to get all over the Earth quickly.  Just disregard that those tunnels were said to be the Hollow Earth in that film and that those tunnels have never showed up on the full Earth scans showing Hollow Earth.  Godzilla King of the Monsters underperformed in 2019, mostly due to the film’s competition, and, since Godzilla vs Kong was both in production at the same and incurred many reshoots, that film pivoted away from a lot of KOTM’s story beats.  I may write an essay about this eventually, but KOTM was full of incredibly ambitious concepts to put into the universe right before the team-up, so I find it forgivable that Wingard dropped them, especially because this new film is acknowledging them. 

 

As well as the aforementioned plot points, the KOTM “17 and counting” Titans are back including Mothra, Scylla and Tiamat (whose CGI model in this film originated in 2019), and the hints toward conflict between Monarch and the world’s governments are back (even though KOTM’s ending credits implied rather speedy resolution).  I am not sure whether or not it counts as a hint to the future of the franchise if the film is just paying lip service to previous sequel teases, but we should watch with interest in the upcoming seasons of the Apple TV+ spinoff shows and the movies to see if these ideas get further elaboration.

The fight itself is mostly well done with Kong fighting defensively and intelligently.  Both Godzilla and Kong knock each other out once and, the sand terrain saves Kong from getting his heart stopped by Godzilla stomping on him, and Mothra saves Kong from Godzilla’s atomic breath, appearing at the exact right moment.  Now, it took some time for Jia to recreate Mothra, with the bug seemingly rematerializing out of energy (the last time we had seen full-sized Imago Mothra she had dematerialized into energy to give Godzilla his Burning power-up, so not following up on the very minor KOTM end credits Mothra egg tease is forgivable), but I think it is strange that they took the time to dress Jia in Iwi garb before resurrecting their Goddess. Was it really part of the prophecy that the Iwi girl from Skull Island (undoubtedly a slightly different culture based on how long they’ve been separated) would have to fully assimilate the Hollow Earth Iwi before she could raise Mothra? Kong almost dies because Mothra did not get there sooner.  Once she is there, the three monsters stand together, making a tripartite pact against the Skar King.  There has been some confusion about the subtitle of this movie: The New Empire.  The ape kingdom is neither new, nor an empire.  It is this alliance here: Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Mothra, God Queen of the Iwi and Kong, eventual King of the Apes all aligned together.  And, of course, while we are here, people complain that Godzilla is only looking at Jia, not Mothra, when he and Mothra have deep relationship in this universe.  Godzilla does actually squint and look at Mothra after recognizing Jia, but Godzilla also had a connection with humanity in KOTM that other fans complain this movie ignored, so I am forced to conclude that to a certain extent and not even because of this film’s flaws, people will complain about it no matter what it actually does.

 

Bernie explains the Iwi gravity manipulation, and it seems feasible the way he says it.  A human society left alone long enough with gravity oddities would find a way to harness them (especially since for the past recorded history, Mothra would have been on the surface in stasis, unless this is a different Mothra, which we have no reason in film to believe).  Even so, there are larger issues with the film.

 

Skar King finally reaches Malenka and has Shimo destroy part of the organic barrier. To buy everyone time, Trapper has brought a herd of Vertacines with the HEAV, and they emerge from somewhere in Malenka.  I do not know how Trapper brought them through the organic barrier, given that both they and the barrier are bio electric.  I can only assume he navigated them through whatever hole he would have made with the M.U.L.E. (however, there is nothing at all to suggest that the Iwi didn’t just open it for him with the wheel with the B.E.A.S.T. Glove, and they cannot have done that now since Malenka is being evacuated, taking us right back to the question of how this happened).  The Vertacines are effective, but animal lover Trapper has just murdered a large population of animals by putting them up against Shimo.  There is no sense of regret for doing this, and he just continues to quip, ever the fun character.  So, at this point, I will say it.  Trapper isn’t just “not a serious person,” he is not a person.  His established attributes are expressed inconsistently, simply to keep a sense of fun in the film.  He has no arc to ground our perception of him in a lesson, and he cannot represent a wholly good paragon or mentor character because of his moments of irresponsibility that betray his character, such as the mosquito and these Vertacines.  He is arguably the worst character in this film, and it’s not necessarily close either.  Dan Stevens is a good actor with a good rapport with Adam Wingard and the rest of the cast; I just hope his writing can improve if he ever comes back. 

 

Because humor is entirely subjective, the way that I evaluate comic relief characters is if their actions and dialogue naturally come from their characters and are things they would say and do based on what we know.  Bernie is a consistent character in that he primarily reflects his conspiracy interests but also can express other emotions the way a human would (it also helps that Brian Tyree Henry based a lot of Bernie’s character on Adam Wingard’s style and mannerisms, so even the subtle parts of Bernie’s characterization have some thought behind them); whereas, I still cannot tell you what Trapper knows about the creatures he loves, how much he values them and how much that changes his actions.  Based on the idea of Trapper as the animal lover with a vested interest in Hollow Earth who knows the HEAV controls and also might have some psychic powers, he should have stayed in Malenka, while Bernie, the guy only down here to bring back proof for his blog and who has been consistently uncomfortable with the flora, fauna and even Malenka, should have been the one to leave at the end of the film (as I’ve alluded to earlier, Bernie has some semblance of the first two thirds of an arc where he realizes he doesn’t have to provide proof for his blog and becomes enamored with Malenka’s gravity manipulation, but it does not finish, meaning he remains the character that would be most likely to leave).

 

The gravity trap activates, and Kong, Shimo, Skar King and Godzilla are all thrust around.  The HEAV also malfunctions, and Trapper has a very imprecise reaction to what has actually happened to the point where I question whether or not he is skilled enough at flying the HEAV for these scenes to work.  Nathan Lind was able to fly HEAVs in the previous movie because he had been studying Hollow Earth entry as his life’s work, and he does not pull off time sensitive maneuvers.  Trapper is a dentist, who should not have even entered Hollow Earth before, least of all have a dedicated seat in the HEAV for him to control the biomimicry.  (As for how he flew the HEAV and flipped the biomimicry switch in the backseat at the same time, it is not impossible, just something that would take more time than it is given.  The editing solution is to have his Vertacine save come much later in the anti-gravity fight.)

 

Godzilla swims through the air, which makes sense (Wingard’s Godzilla crawled like a crocodile at the end of GvK; he would thrive in a simulated ocean environment).  He smacks apes with his tail (the same tail that has evolved to have Stegosaurus-like thagomizers.  This would have been the opportunity to show those off, and the film did not).  We see Kong and Skar King figure out how to fight here, and Mothra webs up apes and saves the HEAV crew.  Now, there is no indication that any of the three apes she webs are supposed to have died. (Unlike the disappearing ape from the 4 v 1, there is no indication they would be able to break out of Mothra’s webbing.  King Ghidorah only could by having the head that got the least of it start unraveling the webs, and, even then, Godzilla still had to barrel through the building he was webbed to.  The other apes are much weaker than Kong to the point where a single point blank punch could knock a guard out in act two, and Ghidorah is stronger than Godzilla, who is stronger than Kong.)  One-Eye and Suko square off, and One-Eye is implied to die because when everything starts falling, Suko kicks him underneath a very large crystal that may or may not also be falling (even if that crystal was stationary, they are higher up than the other apes were with debris falling around them).  Shimo freezes Godzilla, and Mothra saves him, the two female monsters acting according to their best interests and Godzilla for some reason not spamming his beam.  For some reason, everything is falling slowly, so I doubt anyone is falling fast enough to inherently kill them via terminal velocity because our four lead monsters are able to swim through the vortex.

 

The monsters land in Rio, where Skar King and Shimo make it out first and start attacking.  The surface is too bright for Skar King’s cataracts, so he orders Shimo to block it out with a storm.  Godzilla and Kong arrive shortly after, and the fight is mostly Skar King vs Kong and Godzilla vs Shimo with Skar King occasionally using Shimo to get Kong on the backfoot.  Shimo swings Kong around and throws him more powerfully than Godzilla did in Hong Kong and yet Kong’s shoulder is not dislocated this time.  There is an excuse for why Godzilla chest stomping Kong in Egypt was not as effective as it was in GvK (sand as a softer terrain), but there is no such apologetic here: the monsters are not being treated with the same weight of GvK anymore (a film where Kong could jump between naval vessels). At one point in the fight, Godzilla runs through a building to tackle Shimo, and, even one film ago, going through buildings hurt Godzilla substantially but not anymore.  Godzilla, in this film, is generally impervious, meaning the stakes are somewhat lacking in all of his fights.  The film will actually show Godzilla knocked out in a moment, but it is not the focus of the scene and is not treated with more weight than his Egypt knockout to the B.E.A.S.T. Glove.

 

Shimo knocks Godzilla out by throwing him very far, so the B.E.A.S.T. Glove has to hold off Shimo’s ice breath until Godzilla wakes up and destroys the whip holding Shimo’s control crystal.  I am not convinced the glove would do better than the axe at protecting Kong, but that is what the film decided.  Based on what we can see, the glove has a lot of exposed areas, and metal itself should not do that well against cold.  There is a potential fix: when Trapper put in Kong’s tooth replacement, he talked about the strength of it being great because it was made of the same material as the vehicle heat shields.  It is very strange to me that they would design a tooth with that great of an insulator and not the glove.  If Trapper would have namedropped Project Powerhouse alongside the vehicle heat shields, that would have both given the exposition that Powerhouse exists to Trapper’s knowledge (if you add in an awkward look from Andrews towards the Vortex, also the knowledge that it is in the Hollow Earth and everyone else is more reticent than Trapper with it) and given relevant feats to the B.E.A.S.T. Glove.  Again though, it is not our place to write the film for the writer, and having Kong’s part of the final battle consist of the weapon he logically should not have received hold off the weapon that previously hurt him to a sustained degree that should be impossible rather than having Kong use his intelligence once again is contrived and actually very lazy.  I think most of the complaints against this fight are mere matters of opinion, but it does not live up to the potential of the previous fights in this film and franchise, when it easily could have been the best.

 

Skar King evades Godzilla similarly to Kong in Hong Kong, and he is very expressive when he gets his crystal back.  Suko, using Kong’s axe, is the one to destroy the crystal, finally defeating the regime that stifled and abused him.  Skar King goes right back to abusing Suko by strangling him, so Kong saves Suko, Shimo freezes Skar King, and Godzilla clears away all of Shimo’s ice with a very warm beam.  Now that the crystal is gone, it is worth saying that it needed to be better explained.  A weaker villain having a crystal that controls a dragon is a well-established trope, but in a story where said crystal is the only reason the villain wins the early encounters and is a significant part of the final fight, its parameters needed to be better established. 

 

I have not seen people make the following argument for the crystal, but I think it is inevitable, so I will address it here.  If a later film is so inclined to explore and explain this crystal, those explanations will not fix the issues with this film.  That seems obvious to me, but I also have an example.  The Heisei Gamera trilogy is regarded as the best kaiju trilogy ever made, but the second film abruptly introduces a new power for Gamera to win against Legion at the end.  Technically, the film’s context allows for that to be less damaging than the crystal here, and the third film devoting a good deal of time for that explanation keeps the trilogy’s worldbuilding intact, but on a film by film basis, it is a massive Deus ex Machina and blemish on an otherwise perfect script there.  If a later film explains the Shimo control crystal, that will help the larger Monsterverse, not this film. 

 

I have alluded to the Monsterverse’s worldbuilding and lore consistently being inconsistent as both caveats attached to praise and deflections of criticism for this film and think the topic deserves its own essay, but, basically, the retcons from film to film have sometimes stacked in improbability and other times undone each other.  There was already a systemic problem before this movie, so, while it makes the movie slightly worse, it would be unfair to emphasize it here, except insofar as some of the retcons here are worse than prior examples.

 

Kong returns to the ape kingdom, Suko finally has a smile on his face, and Shimo is no longer going to be abused.  Boots looks at his new king.  I would like to reiterate here that the minimalist aesthetic of the ape kingdom works if these other apes are meant to be less human than monkey (though Kong, at this point, is basically an absurdly large Australopithecine).  It also presents the possibility for contrast later if their culture develops under Kong, but that would raise sizable questions as to why culture did not under Skar King however long they were down there.  It will take either subsequent installments or deeper analysis than mine to come to a conclusion on whether or not this is an acceptable plot point.  If Boots is the standard average of these Hollow Earth apes, following films should flesh out his capacity for intelligence.  It also would be nice for Kong to have an ally outside of Suko in the kingdom, especially one that would have an interesting dynamic with the former guards if he gets a boost in the hierarchy.

 

Regardless, Kong’s journey was, overall, well done in this universe.  In Kong: Skull Island, he conquered the loneliness of being the last of his kind by protecting the Iwi.  Then, he lost the Iwi except one and fought to protect her, finding relics of his people, then spending all of his time searching for them until he found them, and they attacked him.  He fought tooth and nail not only to liberate his people but also redeem them by putting up with Suko’s assassination attempts because he legitimately wanted to help that child and the rest of his people.  Both of Wingard’s films especially have leveraged the inherent sympathy we get for seeing a benevolent humanoid character get hurt while chasing good goals in Kong.

 

Godzilla meanwhile returns to Rome to sleep, Mothra goes deeper into the Hollow Earth after repairing the organic barrier, and Trapper takes the HEAV and leaves Andrews, Jia and Bernie in Malenka.  Andrews is finally willing to give up Jia to the Iwi, but Jia, after this cathartic experience, thinks she can handle life with Andrews.  I am not sure why they stay in Malenka, but they do not get on the HEAV with Trapper, so how long they will stay down there is unclear.  People say that their subplot lacks stakes because there was not sufficient conflict for Jia against Andrews or cost for either of them staying or leaving.  That is wrong on both counts. 

 

The subplot’s focus is not on Jia but Andrews and her uncertainty in dealing with Jia’s worsening assimilation when Andrews is technically an outsider to Jia’s culture, adopted Jia in traumatic circumstances unexpected for both, learned Jia was keeping secrets about Kong’s sign language previously, left the Hollow Earth between films where Jia was happy to live with and study Kong, witnesses Jia spiraling out of control even with Andrews doing the best she can, and watches Jia finally at ease with the Iwi.  To say that this arc does not work because the characters are not in greater conflict is the same kind of logic that Godzilla Minus One does not work because Noriko does not take a stand against Shikishima’s treatment of their cohabitation.  There is more than one way to write a character arc; the issue with this one is Andrews’ passive nature and constant retcons to what the Iwi culture was originally.  As for the consequences, Andrews is, for reasons I still do not understand, staying down in the Hollow Earth where they cannot contact Monarch when Andrews is the main PR presence in Monarch, and the world governments will have massive issues with Monarch and the lack of Hollow Earth regulation.  Andrews just chose Jia over the entire world, and that has nothing to it except consequences.  Following films really should address it, and they don’t even need Andrews on the surface to do it: just have the governments decide to take greater action against Hollow Earth and Titan neutrality, which seems to be where the series would be going anyways after Monarch failed to evacuate Egypt and Rio.

 

While there are great moments within this final act, the overall contrivances weigh down its score considerably.  I would rate this at 3 out of 10, which brings the average score of this film a 5 out 10.  I think that is fair, but I would also be willing to go down to a 4.  The film need not be perfect for me to enjoy it, and it also need not be the worst or best film ever for its flaws and merits to matter.  Of the Monsterverse films, this is probably the low point in writing overall and yet also a high point in characterization for including Kong and Suko.  At the same time, this film had the best box office worldwide of the Monsterverse, so the momentum can carry this onward to new films.  Whether they will improve or double down, we shall see.  After Godzilla vs Megalon and Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (1974), we got Terror of Mechagodzilla, and, after Godzilla vs Spacegodzilla, we got Godzilla vs Destoroyah.  It is entirely possible for this franchise to bounce back into better consistency, and I will watch and wait.

Edit: 7/3/2024.  The actual review is over.  I alluded to the confusing nature of what is backstory for this film and the rest of the Monsterverse based on how little this film gave us.  It turns out expanded material related to the film has given us a little more.  We should not have to rely on outside material to understand a film.  If you are uninterested in reading me try to piece together the Monsterverse timeline briefly, you do not need to read this part.

Apparently, from guidebooks and the Artbook for Godzilla x Kong, the intended explanation of events was that Godzilla beat Shimo 1,000 years in the past after she tried to destroy Malenka, trapping her down in the Hollow Earth in such a way she was restrained so that, Skar King could then, after also getting trapped down there in some nebulous time, remove a crystal from her (since the novelization indicates that is where the control crystal came from).  Because none of this is in the film (and the film itself both implies Skar King didn't have Shimo when Godzilla fought the apes in dialogue and that he did through the drawing showing him brandishing his whip the same way as in modern day in the ancient battle), the confusion I demonstrate in this review is valid, and I will not remove that speculation and analysis, since this version of events also has problems.  

Shimo is most likely supposed to have either directly or indirectly frozen King Ghidorah in the ice we find him in at the start of KOTM.  Like the crystals as a light source, that was an idea Wingard's team had and dropped late into the production, but it still probably should be counted as intent.  That finally places the ancient Ghidorah events most likely before the ancient rivalries with the apes (the implied multiple Godzillas vs multiple Kongs in GvK and shown one Godzilla vs many apes in GxK, most likely meant to be the same event now based on Skar King's familiarity with the Godzilla dorsal fin Axe Kong found in the previous film).  If it really only one was Godzilla against all of those apes (and also against Ghidorah), the mutual destruction of the Godzilla species and MUTO species that serves as the backstory for Godzilla 2014 would happen before any of that (I hope you understand my previous comments about how confusing and inconsistent the Monsterverse has always been in lore and worldbuilding).  Godzilla had an ancient society worshipping him that we see the ruins of in KOTM, and now it seems he also protected the Iwi in Hollow Earth.  This is a lot of protecting of humanity for Godzilla to be doing before Skar King wages war on the surface world (since, remember the Iwi lore in GxK is that the apes were the guardians of humanity until that happened), so that already is strange but it gets worse.

If expanded material is on the table and crucial for this film, then we have to look at the prequel comic Godzilla Dominion, and these pieces will stop fitting.  In that story, Godzilla had a previous home wherein a similar, maybe offshoot society worshipped him (the abanoned art is very similar to the KOTM temple).  Another ape, nicknamed The Rival beat him up and took his home.  This is said to be a part of Godzilla's youth, so it would be very strange for this to happen after Godzilla defeated Ghidorah in ancient times, but we are given no information on why The Rival was there.  The only reason we can even guess that The Rival would be outsed is if Skar King took control, and The Rival took on a Kong in Act Two of GxK role of failing to beat Skar King and barely escaping with his life.  (Of course, that only happens in GxK because Skar King as Shimo, and he would not yet, so this relies on Skar having a physical prime we never see.)  That is potentially fine if Skar King was working on building the Godzilla axes while everything else went down, except insofar as Skar King's age.  Shimo can't be trapped until 1000 years before GxK, which is also after Godzilla is capable of defeating creatures as strong as Shimo and Ghidorah.  Kong went from a teenager to middle aged between 1973 and 2024 (and started to gray in fur by 2027), meaning despite the fact that Skar King is framed as quite old in GxK, it is impossible for him to be old enough to kick out The Rival before Shimo attacks Malenka (but Skar King has to be the ape that turned the others to conquest from being protectors of humanity).

The only timeline I can make would go like this.  The Titans are the guardians of nature and Apes are protectors of humanity, distant past.  The MUTOs and Godzillas wipe each other out.  Some circumstance arises where Godzilla is directly worshipped by multiple groups of humanity, and a Kong invades his place of worship, which becomes ruins.  Skar King arises and should live and die in the time it takes for Godzilla to mature from being beaten by an ape to beating Ghidorah and Shimo around 1000 years ago (something needs to have happened about the apes protecting humanity since Godzilla is the one doing it now).  Skar King and company need only find one Godzilla corpse to design all of the axes and build the throne room above the Hollow Earth energy source (but Godzilla being down in the Hollow Earth activately defending against threats mean that it is a very short timeframe he will allow that, since he can sense every moment those axes are charged).  That fight has to happen, and the best faith assumption is that this all is happening in modern history just under the surface of the Earth, again, otherwise Skar King would live and die many times before this film, so that the Kongs and Iwi that get displaced to Skull Island can be as recently as possible (this also does not work with expanded material pertaining to Kong Skull Island but seems possible based on the Godzilla vs Kong novelization).  

Godzilla then has to dump Skar King in a pit where Shimo is restrained, not the apes.  I talked in the review about it making sense to drop the apes into a Shimo pit where they will not survive, but he actuallly restrained her, allowing Skar to take a crystal from her and control her.  This is strange.  Even though Shimo was a destroyer by nature, if we take into account Dominion and the end of GxK, he has leniency for destroyers (he helps out destroyer cephalopod Titanus Na Kika, and of course lets Shimo go after her control is broken).  That seems like the opposite of what he should have done, since, outside of one attack on Malenka, Shimo was an incidental ally, freezing Ghidorah, while Skar King and the apes would not only resemble the rival he hates but have harnessed weapons of at least one fallen Godzilla (technically, the set that made the axes could be Godzilla's own, but then he would have even more reason to kill them).  This is the most workable order I can contrive, but Legendary would need to make the appropriate retcons or make a Monsterverse film that references no ancient backstory.

While this is all a mess, adding back in the prequel comic Godzilla Dominion mitigates one perceived issue with Godzilla x Kong The New Empire.  In that comic, Tiamat nearly kills Godzilla after he tries to go back to the home The Rival destroyed (the reason he is finally going back is that his KOTM home got blown up in that film). Tiamat also looks different once she reappears in GxK, meaning that from Godzilla's perspective, she was already evolving in her GxK home, meaning she was most likely planning on a rematch.  People complain that Godzilla kills Tiamat in this movie, but, from every angle, it is the kind of thing he would justify without character assassination, especially because she came the closest of any KOTM lesser Titan to killing him.

As I have been implying, this mess is not solely because of Godzilla x Kong but the entire Monsterverse adding things that would have been impossible in the world of Godzilla 2014 and never officially reconciling them.  Consequently, it has been best to ignore the novelizations and prequel comics and just focus on the films.  But since this film makes that impossible with cut content, then it should hold up to all of it or at least as much of it as possible.