Posted in: Godzilla, Legendary, Movies | Tagged: Godzila, Godzilla X Kong, IMAX, King King

Finding Political Allegories in Godzilla X Kong The New Empire in IMAX

I saw Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire at the London Waterloo BFI IMAX this weekend. Well, if you are going to go large, go extra large.

I saw Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire at the London Waterloo BFI IMAX last weekend. Well, if you are going to go large, go extra large. Now, while it is easy to see political parallels across the Japanese Gojira movies, spilling out after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, it's harder for the American ones because what they really want to see is monsters fighting monsters and humans crying and cracking wise. And a cute kid.

But can we draw political parallels from CGI monstrosities towering over us? Well, why not? This isn't Godzilla Minus One, but then that isn't playing anywhere in London right now, so we work with the monsters that we have. And it is called Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, which must suggest something about colonialism, right? And you know what, pretty soon into this film, after we have coped with a mopey, lonely King Kong, we get a look at this world that is full of Titans, and they are just getting on with their lives. At any moment, your average Italian citizen may be stomped on by a beastly battle that rips up much of the ancient world, killing thousands in its wake. But you just have to get on with things; what other choice do we have? This is replicated across the news media, which treat the Titans as something the government could do something about but don't; it becomes like climate change, COVID, social media, or Brexit. Something that could be dealt with but eventually will end up just being tolerated no matter what the damage will do. And the biggest impact is whether or not you can get insurance or not.

If Godzilla X Kong had given us more of this, maybe the Titans impact might have been greater. Talking of which, there's also a big problem, as Kong finds a race of giant apes like him in the Hollow Earth and fights that, even in the IMAX, you lose a sense of scale. With nothing to measure the apes against, it looks like you just have normal apes fighting. The only time it snaps you back is in the water, when the splashing of water, more like mist, makes you recall the size these beasts are meant to be.

And then when you do get the big fights they, naturally, have to take place in the cities and… they are fun. Smashing up Italy or Cairo, including the Pyramids, there is a cathartic element to seeing the mightiest and most majestic accomplishments of mankind brought low by mindless monstrosity. But also… seeing Godzilla smashing through bridges full of cars, couldn't help but recall the images of the Francis Scott Key Bridge last week. And as the skyscrapers and office blocks are knocked down, wonder how many would be killed with each blow.

However, this is death in theory. In practice, there is one dead human in the entire film. An ape that falls and a monster dog ripped apart filled with green goo. Throw in a cut and frostbitten Kong's hand and, of course, a sore tooth, and that is pretty much the extent of the damage to a living actually seen on the screen. For such intense death and destruction, it is remarkably bloodless.

Godzilla X Kong delved into why Godzilla had such a problem with Kong; he was part of the effort that sealed the Giant Apes away when their leader tried to take over the world. And so, when it comes to Kong, all giant apes look the same. Godzilla is a racist. Well, that tracks, I suppose. We also get the wise natives tropes, with technology far beyond ours, but resorting to facepaint and loincloths. Aztec-inspired but without any of the nasty stuff like human sacrifice. That we know of, anyway, they usually have a much better relationship with the natural world; the tropes insist on it. But sometimes, you just need a giant gorilla with a metal glove in the mix.

But talking of the humans, everyone gets their arc – the mother gets a daughter, the daughter gets a family, and so does Kong. Godzilla fulfills his destiny; the podcaster gets enough material to make him a star – everyone except for Trapper. An anthropologist and dentist straight out of Downton Abbey, he is nevertheless a) the most entertaining character in the film, b) goes through nothing that changes him despite travelling to the centre of the Earth and seeing things that would beggar the mind, and c) saves the day with a great plot twist that was totally set up, that no one sees coming, but we all love it when it happens.

And that, if nothing else, is a parallel with the film. Unlike Godzilla Minus One, Godzilla X Kong doesn't really mean anything and changes not a jot. And you know what, sometimes, like Trapper, that can be the most entertaining thing of all, especially when it's really, really big.

Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire is in cinemas now.

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