Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

The franchise of The Planet of the Apes released its fourth film in the new series of films and its tenth film overall in the franchise. The previous trilogy has been claimed by many pundits as one of the best trilogies of all-time, and some wondered why there was a need for a new film and how it would fit into the story.

Well, the film takes place several generations after the end of the War of the Planet of the Apes and focuses on a new set of protagonists, while still using the legacy of Caesar in the basic plot.

Our new protagonist is named Noa (Owen Teague) and he is trying to find his tribe after the were taken away. He was joined by the elder orangutan Raka (Peter Macon) and a human named Mae (Freya Allen). However, it turns out that Mae has her own motives for tagging along.

Our new antagonist is Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) who arrived about an hour into the movie. He is trying to get inside this vault built into a cliffside where there were a bunch of human weapons.

I thought this new film was okay. I did like how they built this new group of characters and starting creating the world around them. I think it has set up for the future films well. The first part of this movie felt kind of dull at times. I did like the character work here, but there felt like too much going on.

The apes continue to look tremendous. The special effects are great. I will say that a few of the time when I would see Raka walking, it looked weird. Other than that, everything looked fabulous.

The third act was a lot of fun. I may have a small criticisms of it, but they are not major problems.

Truthfully, there were some ups and down for this film. I liked parts of it. There were parts that I found boring. It looked awesome. I do think it could have shaved off 10-15 minutes for the runtime. This may be better when you look back on this after the whole trilogy is done.

3.5 stars

Tarot

So I did not think there would be a movie subjectively worse than Madame Web this year. Then I saw Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2. After that, I saw Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver. Now today, I have seen another movie that could be considered the worst movie of 2024 (and we are only in May), Tarot.

This horror movie was so generic and featured a group of characters who I did not care about at all, who I did not know anything about or who had no distinguishing characteristics at all. One of them was Jacob Batalon, who played Ned Leeds in the MCU Spider-Man films, but that was the only connection I had to anybody. They tried to use the tarot readings to give information about each character, but that was a failed attempt because none of the readings were interesting or controversial enough to create any sort of intrigue about knowing more about these people.

The group find a deck of tarot cards, hand painted by the way, and decide to do some readings, tying it to astronomy. Then, the readings started coming true in much more tragic ways than what it sounded like when they were done.

Then they had to try and figure out how to survive their apparent fate. The story was so dumb and the dialogue was so generic that there was little to no energy in the film. It was horror movie basic and it did not take anything to another level.

There were a bunch of jump scares, with loud music emphasizing when you are supposed to be scared. Truly dumb and a waste of time.

The race for the number one spot on the list of worst movies of the year during the Year in Review this December is now four deep. I sure hope there are not too many more. How could I decide?

1 star

The Fall Guy

I am a person of certain age who actually watched The Fall Guy TV show on ABC back in the eighties with Lee Majors. It may not have been one of my most favorite shows, but I always enjoyed it. However, I would be lying to say that I thought the idea of making a full length feature film based on the show wasn’t a silly idea.

I have to say though that I really enjoyed the new film starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. I knew I was going to love this when Kiss’s “I Was made for Loving You” blared from the screen to start off the movie.

Directed by former stuntman David Leitch, The Fall Guy follows the life of stuntman Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling), who disappeared after a brutal accident on set, and ghosted his girlfriend at the time Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). After a while, Colt returned to the film world when he was told that Jody wanted him to do stunts on her first, big-budget sci-fi/action flick. When that turned out to be untrue, Colt discovered the reason he was actually summoned back… to help find the movie’s main star, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who had gone MIA.

The Fall Guy is just a lot of fun, filled with some great characters, some funny moments and a ton of breath-taking action, including a world record for number of times rolled by a car (8 1/2).

The biggest selling point for the film was the chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. They were amazing together and, if there were any times where the film was slipping into camp, these two were able to provide the proper amount of pop. The dialogue between them was fire. They made a remarkable couple, one that you could absolutely root for as the movie continued to pull them apart.

The action was brilliant. The stunt work, which seemed mostly practical, was some of the best that we have seen in a movie in a long time. It was a variety of different types of stunts, but it was clearly a love letter to stuntmen and their contribution to the world of movie making.

The film was totally meta as well, as we saw a lot of the behind the scenes of a movie being made, especially from the perspective of the stunt team. The insanity of making a massive film like they were doing comes across with every back stage scene of the movie.

This movie is not perfect. It felt too long, at 2 hours and 5 minutes. I think it could have shaved off 15 minutes and been a tighter watch. Some of the sound mixing seemed off as there were some times where the dialogue was obscured with the background music. The final massive scene was kind of messy too, stretching some credibility.

The story itself is totally ridiculous, but it never took it too far. There is no doubt that there is a lot of silliness going on, but it felt more like a homage to the Fall Guy TV series and several ’80s movies that had obviously been an inspiration for this film. Most of the silly aspects of the script seemed to play well with the humor of the movie.

At first, I thought the story was jumbled and made little sense, but it really did take a turn and made everything that I was ready to criticize make perfect sense. It was actually pretty clever to how it worked out.

Winston Duke is great in his role as Dan Tucker, the head stunt coordinator on Jody’s movie and an old friend to Colt. Hannah Waddingham was fantastic as well as the over-the-top Hollywood producer who was backing the movie. And then there was the dog. The dog stole every scene.

I was hoping that there would be a remix of the original Fall Guy TV theme, which was recorded by Lee Majors, sung by Ryan Gosling. Part of my wish was granted as there was an updated version of the theme playing over the credits, but it was done by Blake Shelton, not by Ryan Gosling. It was okay, but I wanted another performance from Gosling.

The credits after the film included a ton of great footage, including a mid credit scene so stick around and watch them. It’s worth it.

In the end, I had a lot of fun watching The Fall Guy. There were some exceptional action, a lot of humor, some amazing chemistry between two of the most likable actors working today and a story that works itself out after a shaky start. Solid entertainment to kick off the summer movie season.

4.25 stars

Challengers

Okay, I looked up the Rotten Tomatoes score for this and it was in the upper eighties, but I found myself hating this movie.

Again, it is not the worst film of the year by any stretch and it will not be on my year’s worst list. I just had plenty of problems with it and those problems hampered my enjoyment of the story.

Zendaya played Tashi, a soon-to-be tennis superstar who chose to go to college before turning pro. She met fellow tennis players and close friends Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) and Art Donaldson (Mike Faist). Patrick and Art were both struck by Tashi, and were interested in pursuing a relationship with her. Patrick and Tashi hooked up first, but their rocky relationship was shaken when Tashi injured her leg playing and could not compete any more.

Tashi and Art get together after this break up and they wind up getting married and having a child together. Meanwhile, Tashi becomes Art’s coach and he wins several Grand Slam titles, failing only to win the US Open. Patrick’s career falls on hard times and he has to hook up with random women to find a place to stay.

Both Patrick and Art wind up in the finals of a smaller tournament and their one-on-one match carried a ton of stakes.

I had a real problem with a bunch of stuff in Challengers. First off, I never believed that the connection between Tashi and Patrick was strong at all. The film seems to want me to think that they have this irresistible pull between them, but I never felt any sort of chemistry with them. Because of this, the character of Patrick was a horrendous person and I did not want to root for him in the slightest. I also did not find myself liking Tashi very much, and I liked her even less as the film progressed. I do not understand some of the motivation for the acts that she did in the film and so she was very unlikable too.

I disliked the scoring of the film too. There would be certain scenes between individuals and then suddenly this pounding music beat into the theater, dominating what was going on. I usually am not struck by scores that much, but this one was so distracting and constantly out of place that I found it troublesome.

No spoilers, of course, but I absolutely despised the ending of the movie. There were some parts of the film that I did not mind and I might have let it slide by if the ending would have brought me something more than it did. The ending was nonsensical and remarkably disappointing for me.

The acting was good. Zendaya was very strong in this role. I did not like her character, but she pulled off what she had to do. Josh O’Connor was great too as I hated his character and it was as much because of his smirky little looks as it was what his character did.

The tennis scenes were excellent. I also really liked how the film set up their storytelling, bouncing around in flashbacks, centered around this ending match between Patrick and Art. The format was well done and the editing to make this work was exceptional. I just did not love the characters or the way the story went.

I found myself very disappointed with this movie and I came out of the theater saying that I hated this one. Hate is a strong word, but there is enough here to ruin what could have been a fascinating film. The ending I did hate, though…

2.5 stars

Boy Kills World

This was extremely violent and brutally gory. That does not bother me much, but there were more things that did bother me in Boy Kills World.

According to IMDB, “Bill Skarsgård stars as “Boy” who vows revenge after his family is murdered by Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen), the deranged matriarch of a corrupt post-apocalyptic dynasty that left the boy orphaned, deaf, and voiceless. Driven by his inner voice, one which he co-opted from his favorite childhood video game, Boy trains with a mysterious shaman (Ruhian) to become an instrument of death and is set loose on the eve of the annual culling of dissidents. Bedlam ensues as Boy commits bloody martial arts mayhem, inciting wrath of carnage and blood-letting. As he tries to get his bearings in this delirious realm, Boy soon falls in with a desperate resistance group, all the while bickering with the apparent ghost of his rebellious little sister.”

The positives for me was Bill Skarsgård, who I think was really good as the deaf/mute hero. My only problem with him was my own. When I looked at Skarsgård, all I could see was a combination of professional wrestlers Cody Rhodes and Edge and it distracted me constantly. Again, that is not the fault of the film and I thought Skarsgård was very good as this action character.

The action did not work very well for me. There was a lot of camera movement in the fight choreography that was annoying. The fights and the blood did become a bit dull for me because it was overdone. Too much blood and violence dampened the effect of both of them.

The voice over of Boy’s inner thoughts was hit and miss for me. There were some fun lines with it, and others that just felt like it was out of place. I did like the fact that the internal voice was the voice from Boy’s favorite video game as a youth, but the use of “Finish him” or “Fatality” seemed excessive. Funny at first, then not so much.

I became bored by this movie rather quickly, and by the time the third act came around and there was some movement on the story (predictable as it may have been) I had checked out. Not the worst film I have seen this year by a long stretch, just not very good.

2.6 stars

Rebel Moon Part 2: The Scargiver

It has been awhile since I was this bored watching a movie.

I was not a fan of Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire. Dare I say that I am even less of a fan of this new movie, debuting on Netflix this weekend.

The group of characters that had been assembled in the first film ala Seven Samurai return to the village that they had sworn to protect from the totalitarian power of the Imperium.

The biggest problem is that I don’t care about any of these characters which make all the slow-motion action nothing more than just lasers, gun and fights. They meant nothing to me.

There was a scene where the characters sat around a table and told something from their back stories, details that apparently were not important enough to give us in the first movie when we were introducing them. It is truly some lazy filmmaking. Exposition at its worst.

There are so many bloated action scenes that, admittedly looked good, are just there to show off the visual work, but are filled with stupid decisions and eye-rolling levels of senselessness.

So much slo-mo.

Zach Snyder directed this in his most Zach Snyder-esque style. It is lacking in just about everything except action (which does get tedious) and CGI. There is not much more after that.

1 star

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

Inspired by true events, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare gives us a fairly unknown story of a major event during World War II that helped bring the US soldiers into the war in Europe.

In this film, we get a group of bad boys who are out to sink a supply ship that would help to cripple the German U-Boats.

The crew included Henry Cavill, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Eiza Gonzalez, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun, and Henry Golding.

Directed by Guy Ritchie, this is a fun, action movie that presents enjoyable characters against Nazis. Nazis always make great villains to root against.

The story is not incredibly deep, but the the action is certainly fun. Probably my biggest problem with the action is that I never really thought that any of the crew were ever in any danger. They would stroll through each situation shooting people with guns and arrows with little failure. That is a dangerous way to make it boring, but the action is well done enough that it never does get that way.

Henry Cavill is great in his role. He feels like the star of the ensemble. Eiza Gonzalez was excellent as the spy/vixen inside the viper’s den. Alan Ritchson was an awesome action star with his massive muscles and power moves.

As I said, the story is not especially deep, but it is a fun time in the theater as a popcorn movie.

3.6 stars

Sasquatch Sunset

This was a weird movie.

We follow a family of sasquatches. Going in, I thought these sasquatches would be an anthropomorphic creature that would talk English like humans. Nope. Nothing but grunts, calls and tree knocks. The four actors had to relate thoughts without words, via actions, facial expressions and body language.

The four actors playing the family of sasquatches were Riley Keough, Jesse Eisenberg, Christophe Zajac-Denek, and Nathan Zellner.

This is a gross movie in many instances, including scenes of vomiting, throwing poop, peeing and dangling Sasquatch penises (which kind of ruin the myth of comparison to big feet).

There are also some very powerful moments of loss and tragedy as the family tried to make its way through a years time.

I am very mixed about this, because much of the humor of the film are the type of humor that I do not like. The scene where the father squatch threw up after eating some special mushroom was extremely gross, with green vomit dangling in his beard. Still, there were some moving moments as the sasquatches tried to navigate the struggles of the wilderness. There is a cougar in the film that is just massive.

I do appreciate the swing that directors David and Nathan Zellner took with this movie, but it just did not fully hit with me. It took quite a risk to not have any dialogue in the entire flick. That definitely took some adjusting to, but after awhile, it did not bother me.

There is an artistry here, so I do not want to fully dismiss what the Zellners tried to do. The fact is this movie just did not work for me. There are positives here for sure and it took some sasquatch sized balls to make it, but ninety minutes felt too long. Sasquatch fans might really enjoy this and there is definitely comments about relationships and our world here, but there was just too much other things that I couldn’t get past.

2.8 stars

Abigail

This movie was awesome, but I just can’t shake the feeling that it could have been so much better, perhaps even the best movie of the year, but it has to settle for awesomeness thanks to the trailers.

I went into the film wondering why the movie would reveal in the trailers that the little girl who had been kidnapped was, in truth, a vampire. I did not understand the idea behind it, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt, thinking that perhaps there was another, more dramatic reveal in the film that made it okay to give away this major plot point.

After seeing the movie, I am even more flummoxed about why the studio would give away what could have been a major twist in the story in the trailer.

The first part of the movie treated this like a kidnapping story and that the crew of hired thugs were to babysit the hostage in this old, spooky house. There were times in the early part of the film that tried to make the little girl, Abigail, into a victim and the film tried to pull on the heartstrings of the audience. The thing is, I knew the whole time that Abigail was a vampire.

It also tried to play a bit of a game of “who can you trust” by making it seem as if Frank, played by the amazing Dan Stevens, was behind the entire thing, and that would have been a cool twist, had I not known that the little girl was a vampire. All this early part of the movie would have worked so much more had they not spoiled that reveal in the trailer.

And the argument would be trying to get people into the theater, but I honestly think there could have been a way to weave together a trailer that painted this into a different picture, while protecting that one major concept. The reveal of Abigail as a vampire would have hit so much harder, been so much more impactful if I did not know it was coming.

After all of that, this movie still rocked really hard.

I was shocked to see at the film’s beginning that Alisha Weir played Abigail. Alisha Weir was the lead of one of my favorite movies of a couple years ago, Matilda the Musical. I absolutely loved her in that role and she is fabulous here too. She is an amazing young actor and she has a bright, bright future. In what could have been a one note role in Abigail, Weir brought so much emotion, vulnerability and power to her character while still being sinister and downright terrifying.

The rest of the ensemble cast was great too. Melissa Barrera was fantastic as the main protagonist, who was the character that the audience was intended to connect with and I certainly did. However, they still imbued her with plenty of mistakes and a back story that was filled with mistakes. She was a bad ass, but also a character with more regrets than happy memories.

Dan Stevens is always amazing, and this is no exception. This is a character that is anything but likable, but you still find yourself rooting for him even though. Dan Stevens does a tremendous job with this character that had surprising depth for this type of movie.

Kathryn Newton, William Catlett, Kevin Durand and the late Angus Cloud formed a ragtag bunch of lowlifes that mixed beautifully with the horror/comedy vibe of the film. Giancarlo Esposito had a small, but meaningful role as well.

As I mentioned, this was a horror/comedy film and I laughed out loud multiple times at some of the situations that these characters wound up in.

I might have legitimately given this movie 5 stars had the vampire twist been kept as a secret. I came out raving about this movie even without the surprise, but I can’t help but think it would have been so much more without the spoilers.

4.75 stars

Civil War

This was a really well done movie with some dramatic moments.

I do not want to every see it again.

There have been several movies that I have seen that I loved, but that had such an impact on me that I would not want to watch it again.

Despite what you might think, this is not a political movie. The film does not go into specifics on how the film’s civil war started nor does it take sides. I think that was a very smart thing to do, but I do expect that some people from either side may see what they want to see in the movie even though it is not there.

The film focuses on four characters who are photo journalists in their attempt to go from New York to D.C. It is essentially a dystopian road trip movie, with a series of scenes that show the horrible events that a war brings. Innocent bystanders are caught in crossfire, lives are ruined, death surrounds them all.

The four main characters have great chemistry together and bring an energy to the darkness around them. Kirsten Dunst played a battle weary photo journalist named Lee and Wagner Moura played her partner Joel. They are joined by up and coming photo journalist Jesse, played by Cailee Spaeny. Then fourth of the group was the wonderful Stephen McKinley Henderson whose character was a grizzled veteran reporter, Sammy.

These characters interact with each other and the film is truly a character piece involving their road trip toward D.C.

The sound mixing team on this film did an amazing job as it sounded unbelievable. The gun shots would literally resonate in the audience’s gut, creating an uneasiness and an awkwardness that empowered the tone of the film.

Civil War is a violent film that does an admirable job at not taking a side in the conflict, nor does it blame either. It spends time with four characters who have to deal with the consequence of war and trying to exist in a war zone. It is a compelling movie with strong lead performances that anchor the film.

4.25 stars

The First Omen

I caught up with this film that had been released last week, and I heard some positive reactions to the prequel. Unfortunately, I did not find these reactions matched up with my own.

This basically tells the story behind the birth of Damien from the original Omen movie, and the mythology behind it. Honestly, I found a lot of this to be shaky, as the reasoning behind it felt all over the place for me.

Nell Tiger Free starred as the main character Margaret, who had just arrived in Rome to begin her service to the church. This film was set in 1971, but did not necessarily feel that way in any other manner than the production values.

I will say that I think Nell Tiger Free did a spectacular job in this role, in particular with the physical demands of the performance. She was definitely the stand out for me, at least about two-thirds of the way into the film when things started happening.

I had a lot of trouble with what was happening in the plot. I did not understand the reasoning behind it and I wasn’t sure who I was supposed to be rooting for.

So, this was okay, but I did not enjoy it very much. I can understand why people liked it, because it was better than a lot of other horror sequels/prequels. I just did not think much about this.

2.5 stars

Monkey Man

Dev Patel had his debut as a feature length director. He was also a writer on this project as well as the lead actor, so Dev had a huge presence across Monkey Man.

I would say that the best parts of this movie was Dev Patel. His performance was outstanding. He took this character and provided a ton of emotion for him.

According to IMDB, “Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.

This was very violent and brutal in many moments, but the biggest problem I had with the movie was the use of shaky cam. So much of the fight scenes were difficult to see because of the shaky cam. There were some scenes where the camera was set and not shaking and they looked great.

There were several moments that the film felt kind of dull. It feels as if it were too long and could have used some editing.

Monkey Man has its flaws, but it is a good movie despite those. It was an impressive debut for Dev Patel behind the camera.

3.4 stars

Bray Wyatt: Becoming Immortal

The WWE has always done exceptional documentaries. The new doc about the late great Windham Rotunda, better known to the world as Bray Wyatt, is about as exceptional as it comes.

Windham Rotunda shockingly passed away in 2023, something that no one expected or saw coming and it left a massive hole in the world of WWE. This documentary gives the story of Windham Rotunda from his early days to his final days inside the squared circle.

Narrated by the Undertaker, Becoming Immortal did not just focus on the positive moments of Windham’s life, but also the challenges that he faced as he worked his way through the world of sports entertainment. Though many said how difficult it was to work with him, everyone admitted what a creative genius Windham Rotunda was.

Comments from so many of Bray Wyatt’s contemporaries spoke throughout the doc, including Triple H, Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, Braun Stroman, Sami Zayn, Big E, LA Knight, John Cena, Hulk Hogan, Alexa Bliss and Erick Rowan.

However, the most emotional moments are provided by Windham’s younger brother, Taylor Rotunda, known to the WWE audience as Bo Dallas, as well as other family members of Windham, including his father Mike Rotunda, uncle Barry Windham, his first wife Samantha and his second wife JoJo. The recollections of this group of people about the final days of Windham’s life were absolutely heart-breaking and brought tears to my eyes.

It was so clear how much Windham Rotunda was loved by everyone around him. Jason Baker, who was one of Windham’s closest friends, was one of the creative forces behind the masks and outfits for the character of Bray Wyatt. His insights into Windham Rotunda were very powerful as well.

Seeing some of the art Windham did during the time when he had been released from the WWE was amazing. It displayed such an amazing truth about how talented and creative Windham Rotunda was.

As a fan of Bray Wyatt, this was tough at times to watch, but I am very pleased that the documentary was shown. It is available on Peacock.

4.6 stars

Immaculate

Sydney Sweeney has now appeared in two of the worst movies of 2024. First, Madame Web and now this religious themed horror movie, Immaculate.

According to IMDB, “Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney), a woman of devout faith, is warmly welcomed to the picture-perfect Italian countryside where she is offered a new role at an illustrious convent. But it becomes clear to Cecilia that her new home harbors dark and horrifying secrets.

I should not single out Sydney Sweeney, because there is no doubt that she is the absolutely best part of this fart of a movie. Her performance is savage, and she dominates her screen time.

The problem is that the film is just not very good.

The first hour of the movie was very dull and it spent the entire time throwing jump scares at the audience where the music suddenly spikes loudly, only to see nothing in particular. It was one of the most prolific uses of jump scares I have seen in quite awhile.

While the film’s premise had some promise, the film just goes off the rails in the third act, settling for shocking moments over any sort of storytelling. While I appreciate some of the swings it took in that final act, particularly right at the end, it depends on shock to create emotion in the audience, not anything to do with character or story elements.

Sydney Sweeney was really good in this. She gave it her all. The material was just not up to the quality of her performance.

1.3 stars

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Godzilla and Kong are back together once again with the Monsterverse as a new threat forces the two titans to work together. Yes, the story is a little wonky and lacks any real sense of dread, but there are some epic monster fights, and where else are you going to see Godzilla give King Kong a suplex?

That was a life-affirming moment for me.

The new threat is another giant ape by the name of the Scar King. Scar King has been trying to escape from the bowels of Hollow earth for a long time and, with Godzilla on the surface, Scar King has been having more success. He has marshalled his forces together, including a cold controlling titan that he is using pain to force it to help him (that’s not coming back at the end…sarcasm). Kong realizes that he can not take the new threat on his own and he went back to earth to recruit Godzilla, who has been sensing trouble and has been charging up with some nuclear energy.

The plot of this film is really weak. What this movie had to do to hit its purpose was to have great monster fights, and I already mentioned the suplex, right? The fights were well done and the CGI looked fantastic. Was there some cheesy moments? Sure. Kong gets a bionic arm to help with his injured arm. Luckily this bionic arm was already in Hollow Earth.

However, there was a major problem. I never felt as if Scar King was a danger to any sort of combination of Godzilla and Kong, along with whatever other Titans that might show up (no spoilers). I never believed Scar had any chance of taking them down, even after he did well in his initial fight with Kong.

The humans were kept as a sideshow, as they should have been. The human cast included Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens, Brian Tyree Henry and Kaylee Hottle. Kaylee Hottle, played the lovely young lady Jia, reprising her role from Godzilla vs. Kong. Hottle had a real presence on screen and she stood out among the human characters. She seemed to fit beautifully in with the grandness of the monsters around her. I was very impressed by this young actress, who apparently is deaf as well.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire was a fun time if you wanted to see giant monsters fighting. Though it is an unfair comparison, this does not match up to Godzilla Minus One at all. That was a much better movie, but this is still fun and a decent popcorn flick.

3.2 stars