Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray review
★★★★ | Say hello to your new demo disc
★★★★ | Say hello to your new demo disc
The Film
★ | Aggressively tedious monster-mayhem without heart
Godzilla X Kong is the fifth Monsterverse film, and easily the worst of the bunch so far. It has momentary glimpses of a better, more enjoyable outing, but they’re few and far between. It tries to emulate the whimsy of the Heisei series, which saw Godzilla team up with a new monster every year. Yet none of it sticks. Godzilla X Kong is too silly when it should be serious, too serious when it should take it easy.
But more than that, it’s also too long for what is ultimately a very flimsy story. At two hours, there’s barely enough content to warrant half that in terms of plot. Godzilla now roams the earth, fighting off random titans and keeping mankind safe. Despite apparently wiping out hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people every time it has a ruckus. Kong lives alone in the hollow earth, pining for a family. As he discovers an unearthed realm within his kingdom, and the violent society of apes within, he and Godzilla must team up to assert dominance together.
It’s a decent enough setup for some kaiju-wackiness, and compared to the previous two installments, it’s certainly far clearer to follow. But there is barely any meat on the bones, and the story itself just isn’t interesting enough for a full length feature. By the time we get to the umpteenth CGI-infested showdown between weightless monsters, it all feels too much.
The American Monsterverse has never been good with the human supporting characters, and not much has changed here. Great actors like Rebecca Hall and Brian Tyree Henry are utterly wasted in nothing parts. Surely there is something, anything, better they could be doing than reacting to empty spaces with the same dire expressions? The problem is, they barely have any dialog beyond grunts and yelps. Vast parts of the film flash by without anything but guttural noises and explosions in the soundscape. It’s like listening to a metal garbage can filled with farm animals topple down the stairs.
Most of all, Godzilla X Kong is boring. It’s not even bad enough to be fun. Director Adam Wingard knows how to put together a shot, and the animators are clearly talented at what they do. But it’s all in service of an empty story that holds no interest, and has none of the anarchic glee of competing nonsense like Moonfall. Apart from a delightfully loopy scene early in the film, where Kong arrives on Earth for a dentist appointment, I can’t remember a single moment worth repeating in the entire thing.
For a Kaiju movie, that’s not a great sign.
Technical Specs & Presentation
★★★ | Bare minimum on the disc, but quality throughout.
💡 Release Date: 1.7.2024
💡 Subtitles: Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, English
The Nordic 4K Ultra HD release is sparse, but entirely acceptable. While I’m a bit miffed that it’s missing a Blu-ray copy of the film (without a noticeable decrease in price), the 100gb 4K disc packs in a decent amount of extras and a gorgeous presentation of the film. There’s nothing particularly to write home about, but also nothing to scoff too hard at. It’s simply a solid, unambitious release that delivers on precisely what it says on the box.
Video
★★★★★ | Superb visual presentation that sets the bar for all other films this year.
💡 Widescreen (2.39:1)| UHD 2160pHDR10 | Dolby Vision
Whatever issues I have with the film are entirely void and null when it comes to the visual presentation, which is among the best I’ve seen all year. This is a gorgeous, pristine reproduction of what I saw in cinemas, with eye-popping color reproduction, and perfect HDR.
From the opening sequence with Kong fighting off competitors in the Hollow Earth to the big showdown in Rio, there isn’t a single moment in Kong X Godzilla that isn’t worthy of a demo showcase. Even on a lesser television, this is one of the best discs you can use to showcase what 4K is capable of in a way that anyone can understand it.
My favorite part is the big underground fight involving every monster featured in the film, locked in a brawl in zero gravity. There’s a lot going on in the picture, from debris to light sources and big creatures rocking back and forth, and everything looks sharp and flawless. Even if you’re not a fan of the film, this is one of the demo discs money can buy.
Audio
★★★★★ | One of the best audio mixes all year — a new demo king
💡 English: Dolby Atmos | TrueHD
The superlatives extend to the audio side as well. Even if the Nordic release comes with only a singular Dolby Atmos/TrueHD English audio track. It’s a minor complaint, as this is a big, bombastic and all-encompassing mix that will test the capacity of every subwoofer out there. From crackling roars to impossibly sharp background details, the Atmos track is a stunning showcase of how good we have it on home media right now.
Listen, for example, the sequence where the team travels to Hollow Earth the first time. Every channel explodes with humming, detail, and directional life. The subwoofer tracks thump at the chest as if you were at the movies, and despite the big and expansive mix, the dialog never gets lost in the shuffle. This is a spectacular technical 4K release, one of the very best of the year.
Audiences on regular televisions don’t have to worry, either. Listened to a Samsung Q80D, with only double 10w speakers, the sound mix was more than acceptable – and occasionally surprisingly punchy considering the source. Dialog is clear here as well, and while you do miss out on some of the biggest oomph that a big subwoofer delivers, I’d argue that you’ll be perfectly happy with Godzilla X Kong regardless of your home theater setup. It’s that good.
Extras
★★★ | Decent enough supplements, though nothing groundbreaking.
The extras are fine, if frustratingly short. A feature commentary track is lively, but informative. Most of the dialog is people pointing out scenes they like and how much fun something was to film, but there’s little insight into how the film took its current (arguably light) shape.
The featurettes are comprehensive, but also lack depth. Most range from a few minutes to at most ten, and just when you’re settling in for some deeper nuance on costumes or background work, the footage just stops. They remind me of old electronic press kits, with just enough soundbites so you can edit them into other features, but short enough that another poor editor doesn’t have to spend hours scouring them for good highlights.
All the material is subtitled and most of it is interesting. It’s just that big monster movies are a lot of work, and after Peter Jackson set the bar really high with King Kong in the extras department, everything else feels like they’re playing catch-up. Again, none of it is bad, just breezy and light, and I wish there were more of it.
Overall
★★★★ | A demo disc worthy presentation of a lesser film
I’m not a fan of Godzilla X Kong. I’ve now watched it twice, once in theaters and once at home, and I can’t see myself ever enjoying it even as a guilty pleasure. It’s a big and loud action film, but also without heart or anything special to make it stand out from, say, a Transformers movie.
But I love the technical presentation of this film, and it’s now become my go-to disc to showcase both my sound system and to test any future televisions that may come my way. Everything about it is gorgeous, and I wish it were in service of a better movie.
If you enjoy Godzilla X Kong even a little bit more than I do, this is the definitive version to get. It’s a handsomely produced package that does almost everything right, and has more than enough punch to justify the upgrade to 4K. And if it’s your first 4K, you’ll wonder why you ever settled for anything less.
Full extras
Audio Commentary
Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes:
GxK: Day of Reckoning
Evolution of the Titans
Godzilla Evolved
From Lonely God to King
Into the Hollow Earth
Visualizing Hollow Earth
Monsters of Hollow Earth
The Battles Royale
A Titanic Fight Among the Pyramids
The Zero Gravity Battle
The Titans Trash Rio
The Intrepid Director
Big Kid
Set Tour
The Imagination Department
The Monarch Island Base: Portal to Another World
The Evolution of Jia: From Orphan to Warrior
Bernie’s World: Behind the Triple Locked Door