Action
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (12A)
Review: Relatable humans are the endangered species in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Not just the digitally rendered men, women and children, who are crushed under foot by hulking monsters in the sequel’s bombastic action sequences, but also the flesh-and-blood actors including Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens and Brian Tyree Henry. They are sidelined for prolonged periods of director Adam Wingard’s monster-mashing smackdown to allow battalions of special effects wizards to take over the asylum and excitedly decimate or desecrate landmarks including the Colosseum in Rome, Egyptian pyramids and the statue of Christ the Redeemer, which gazes serenely down on Rio de Janeiro.
When characters do materialise, they squeeze obligingly into pigeonholes – the maternal protector, the quirky love interest, the comic relief – and casually distil a ramshackle plot in expository dialogue. It’s a far cry from the Japanese blockbuster Godzilla Minus One released at the end of last year, which used its Oscar-winning visual effects sparingly and never lost sight of human lives devastated by large-scale devastation.
Rivals become wrestling tag team partners in the cacophonous sequel, which strays into territory inhabited by the Planet Of The Apes saga with the heavy-handed introduction of a rival primate to Kong. Like a wrestling match, the outcome is predetermined and any tears shed inside the ring are purely for show to manipulate our emotions.
Kong reigns supreme over Hollow Earth, the fantastical self-contained ecosystem buried deep within the core of our planet while Godzilla rules the surface. A peculiar electrical signal emanates from the hulking ape’s subterranean domain and Godzilla reacts to the disturbance by consuming vast amounts of nuclear energy. Anthropologist Dr Ilene Andrews (Hall), who works for scientific organisation Monarch, assembles a research party to venture into the “nightmare monster hellscape” of Hollow Earth to locate the signal’s source. Head of security Mikael (Alex Ferns) leads the expedition comprising Ilene, her deaf ward Jia (Kaylee Hottle), titan veterinarian Trapper (Stevens) and conspiracy theorist podcaster Bernie Hayes (Tyree Henry).
The interlopers stumble upon the secret, bloodthirsty history of Skull Island, handily immortalised as ornate temple carvings so Ilene can verbalise the convoluted mythology. A power-crazed ape christened Scar King, who failed to annihilate humans many blood moons ago, is entombed somewhere within Hollow Earth. Should the villainous primate escape and reach the planet’s surface via a wormhole, mankind will surely fall.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire beats its chest in protracted fight sequences, merrily razing cities under the auspices of protecting our species from rampaging titans. When the dust settles, scriptwriters Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett and Jeremy Slater cough and splutter through perfunctory dialogue that strains to balance broad humour with sentimentality. Computer-generated beasts are the stars of a bloated show but the louder they roar, the harder the film falls.
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Animation
Kung Fu Panda 4 (PG)
Review: Sixteen years after Jack Black growled his first “Skadoosh!” while demonstrating a perfect Wuxi Finger Hold in the original Kung Fu Panda, dumpling-obsessed hero Po is showing his age. Fur and feathers fly with pleasing regularity in a high-kicking fourth instalment of the computer-animated franchise but the jokes in Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger and Darren Lemke’s script punch disappointingly low and light and a power-hungry villain has to absorb the kung fu moves of previous antagonists to become a palpable threat. Black’s seemingly inexhaustible exuberance from previous instalments is dialled down from 11 to a sensible 7, offering less distraction from a simplistic quest-driven plot that preaches the positivity of change.
“If things stay the same forever, sooner or later they will lose their flavour,” counsels a wise master of noodle broth. Sadly, Kung Fu Panda 4 proves its own point. Mike Mitchell’s picture, co-directed by Stephanie Ma Stine, throws together the same ingredients – frenetic fight sequences, wisecracks, cross-species co-operation – and serves up the blandest dish of the series to date. There is almost nothing in Po’s latest jaunt to excitedly slurp and savour. Black’s cover of Britney Spears’…Baby One More Time over the end credits feels like an acknowledgement that filmmakers are going through the motions to boost the franchise’s box office, not because of any dramatic necessity.
“Destiny calls for you to take the next step on your journey,” Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) counsels his panda protege, who must ascend to Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace just as Grand Master Oogway intended. Po (Black) is resistant to change and the current Dragon Warrior focuses on the re-emergent threat of villainous snow leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane), who has seemingly escaped from the Spirit Realm.
Fox thief Zhen (Awkwafina) warns Po that appearances are deceptive and the bullying big cat is a disguise of powerful shape-shifting sorceress The Chameleon (Viola Davis). Bidding farewell to his protective fathers Mr Ping (James Hong) and Li (Bryan Cranston), Po ventures to The Chameleon’s fortress in Juniper City via the Happy Bunny Tavern run with an iron trotter by Granny Boar (Lori Tan Chinn). En route, the benevolent bear mentors Zhen in the art of self-sacrifice and makes merry in a den of thieves controlled by pangolin Han (Ke Huy Quan).
Kung Fu Panda exhausts affection for Po and his anthropomorphic chums despite solid vocal work from Black and Awkwafina, who polish lacklustre one-liners as they riff off each other. Davis deserves sharper writing to swathe her megalomaniacal magician in menace and a running visual gag with a cliffside drinking den is over-extended. Colourful animated visuals are richly detailed, packing a punch that is otherwise lacking in Mitchell and Stine’s pedestrian and fitfully entertaining smackdown. A case of grin and panda bear it.
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Thriller
Mothers' Instinct (15)
Review: A mother’s love is a delicate rose with razor-sharp thorns in a handsomely cultivated English-language remake of Olivier Masset-Depasse’s 2018 psychological thriller Duelles. Transplanted from 1960s bourgeois Brussels to American suburbia, Mothers’ Instinct pits Oscar winners Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway against each other in a Hitchcockian plot that tightens the screws on best friends as they wrestle with grief and guilt in the aftermath of a tragic accident. Award-winning cinematographer Benoit Delhomme is well versed in conjuring striking period-specific imagery for filmmakers such as David Mamet (The Winslow Boy), Mike Figgis (Miss Julie), John Hillcoat (The Proposition), James Marsh (The Theory Of Everything) and Julian Schnabel (At Eternity’s Gate).
For his directorial debut, Delhomme uses Masset-Depasse’s picture as a template to heighten discomfort and suspense, beginning with an unsettling opening sequence that suggests malevolent intent behind twitching net curtains. The artfully staged bluff allows Delhomme to revisit the scenario later in his film, this time without merciful concessions to gnawed nails and whitened knuckles. Sarah Conradt-Kroehler’s script shifts the balance of power between female protagonists, discharging the pent-up tension in a satisfyingly twisted final flourish guaranteed to drop a few jaws.
Alice (Chastain) and Celine (Hathaway) are next door neighbours, devoted to the upkeep of their impeccably furnished homes while their respective husbands Simon (Anders Danielsen Lie) and Damian (Josh Charles) go out to work and trap the wives in gilded cages of the era. While traditionalist Damian works in the pharmaceutical industry and is sole breadwinner, Simon is more progressive, supporting Alice’s professional dreams so long as she continues her measured recovery from a mental health crisis. The women’s parenting styles couldn’t be more different. Alice is overly protective of her young son Theo (Eamon O’Connell), who has a peanut allergy, while Celine is relaxed and poised with her boy Max (Baylen D Bielitz).
A tragic fall from an upstairs balcony robs Celine of her only child and Alice is a guilt-riddled witness to the accident. Alice senses her best friend blames her for the devastating loss and paranoia poisons the relationship. Celine requests to spend time with Theo as a coping mechanism, since she is unable to have more children. The boy’s grandmother Jean (Caroline Lagerfelt) urges quietly worded caution and an increasingly unhinged Alice becomes convinced that Celine intends to seek revenge by killing her precious Theo.
Mothers’ Instinct coolly bides its time, walking a tightrope strung between gnarly suspicion and incontrovertible fact. Our distress matches the characters’ and Chastain and Hathaway deliver compelling performances that beg uncomfortable questions about their homemakers’ mental wellbeing and rationality. Delhomme maintains a firm grip on pacing and tone to prevent Alice and Celine’s frosty rivalry from descending entirely into sweeping melodrama.
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