Tag: Kaylee Hottle

Oscar Predictions – Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

The previous four features in Universal’s MonsterVerse franchise have yielded precisely one Oscar nomination and it was for the movie without Godzilla in the title. That would be the second feature 2017’s Kong: Skull Island for its Visual Effects (it lost to Blade Runner 2049). The other entries with the jolly green giant on the poster – 2014’s Godzilla, 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong – didn’t make the VE competition or any other.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is out this Easter weekend and reviews are mixed. Adam Wingard directs with Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, and Fala Chen among the human cast. The monster mash sits below the 76% RT score that (strangely enough) Godzilla, Skull Island, and Godzilla vs. Kong share. The 62% rating is above the 42% that King of the Monsters was saddled with.

Visual Effects is really the only possibility unless there’s a surprise Sound nod. The VE are being singled out by some writers. What’s transpired already in the MonsterVerse suggests it’s an uphill battle for final five inclusion. Academy voters also honored the title character just last year when Japan’s Godzilla Minus One won the category (giving Godzilla his first gold statue). My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Box Office Prediction

Warner Bros is looking for a profitable monster mashup when Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire touches down on March 29th. It is the fifth feature in the MonsterVerse series behind Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), and Godzilla vs. Kong (2021). Adam Wingard, who made the iconic creature battle from three years ago, directs. Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, and Kaylee Hottle reprise their roles from the last flick with Dan Stevens, Alex Ferns, and Fala Chen joining the fracas.

Empire is highly unlikely to approach the premiere gross that Godzilla managed nearly 10 years ago with $93 million. The $61 million achieved by Skull Island might be out of reach as well. The best comps are its two immediate predecessors. Monsters started off with $47 million and that was considered a letdown at the time. Godzilla vs. Kong was released when COVID was still limiting earnings potential. It made $31 million out of the gate. Yet its legs were a little stronger as it ended up with $100 million domestic vs. the slightly more $110 million for Monsters.

There’s a possibility that #5 posts the third best debut of the quintet. I suspect that it will with a gross just ahead of what part 3 achieved.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire opening weekend prediction: $52.2 million

Godzilla vs. Kong Review

Adam Wingard’s Godzilla vs. Kong is lighter than its MonsterVerse predecessor Godzilla: King of the Monsters from 2019. I don’t just mean lighter in tone (which it is), but actually lighter where it counts. When the two title character titans clash, we can actually see it. That’s an improvement over what transpired two years ago when Godzilla’s battles were too dimly lit or obscured by pounding rain. That’s a major plus, but not every aspect of this franchise has leveled up. The human characters are still an uninteresting and bland group. We have fine actors whose primary responsibility is to talk about the massive CGI combatants and react to what they’re doing. Their character development is a secondary consideration. That said – we’re not here for that, are we? This is the culmination of three pictures leading to a movie being named Godzilla vs. Kong and it frequently manages to deliver.

We last left King Kong in the 1970s during Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla in the aforementioned Monsters when he successfully warded off King Ghidorah and others. The fourth franchise entry picks up five years after Monsters as Kong is being monitored by Monarch on his native island. His human contact is mostly with linguist Dr. Andrews (Rebecca Hall) and her deaf adopted daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle), who’s a native of the island. A magazine cover identifies the doctor as the “Kong Whisperer”, but it’s clearly Jia who’s found the most sincere connection with the massive ape. Also on Kong patrol is geologist Dr. Lind (Alexander Skarsgard).

While Kong is living a pretty chill existence on Skull Island, Godzilla’s fiery temper unexpectedly flares up. The not so jolly green giant has resurfaced to do lots of property destruction. His inexplicable attitude adjustment causes the CEO of APEX (Demian Bichir) to recruit Kong to solve this dilemma. APEX is a big shadowy corporation that sells itself as trying to solve the Titans problem. That doesn’t gel with conspiracy theorist Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry) and he’s got sympathizers with Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown, returning from Monsters) and her nerdy buddy Josh (Julian Dennison). Madison’s dad, played by Kyle Chandler, also reprises his Monsters role.

Enough with the plot which also involves specialized vehicles zooming through gravity fields. All of this is a prelude to watching Godzilla and Kong fight. It happens early (no shades of the slow buildup of 2014’s Godzilla) and round 1 transpires on water and is gloriously lighted for our entertainment.

The main event is in Hong Kong and that’s when we learn why Godzilla is being so irritable (hint: corporate greed is a factor). The climactic matchup is preceded by some fairly dull scenes with humans. No performance is bad. They’re just inconsequential with the exception of Hottle’s Jia in a winning performance. As long as we’re able to ignore the poor people in the buildings that are demolished with Kong and Godzilla’s every twitch and stumble, these skirmishes are expertly staged and enjoyable. I’d put it a notch below 2014’s Godzilla stand-alone from Gareth Edwards, but a hair above Kong: Skull Island and certainly ahead of Monsters. This delivers on its title well enough and is lit properly.

*** (out of four)