Godzilla. King Kong. Together again. What else do you need? With the release of the original King Kong in 1933 and Godzilla in 1954, the two movie titans have been thrilling audiences for over 90 years. Now comes Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the fifth film in the latest incarnations of the beloved characters that began with 2014’s Godzilla from director Gareth Edwards. So far, the Legendary Pictures’ saga (featuring characters owned by Toho Co. Ltd. and dubbed the “Monsterverse”) has been a raucous good time. Written by Terry Rosio, Simon Barrett and Jeremy Slater and directed by Adam Wingard (Godzilla vs. Kong), this latest entry is a non-stop thrill ride and a popcorn-chomping blast of cinematic fun.

Picking up where 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong left off, Godzilla has made the surface world his territory, trouncing around cities, fighting bad kaijus, and taking naps in a Roman colosseum. This Godzilla is no villain, but it is wise not to anger him. Let him crush a few buildings here and there, they can be rebuilt.

Having returned to Hollow Earth, Kong (the last member of his species) lives a lonely king’s life, wandering the lands and hunting/fighting an array of creatures. It is clever to see the mighty Kong making use of intricate traps he has crafted to catch his prey.

The best parts of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire are found with Kong in Hollow Earth. Our hero discovers another world where many apes are enslaved by the brutal Skar King. The red-haired, chain-wielding, villain rules over a rock mine, controlling his slaves and his ape army with the ice breathing reptilian kaiju called Shimo. Brimming with barbaric menace and existing as a blend of Planet of the Apes and Conan the Barbarian, these moments are a source of visceral thrills that allow Kong a worthy and dangerous foe.

Along the way, Kong finds a young ape who will become the film’s “Son of Kong”. Their scenes together are crafted with humor and feeling, giving the two characters a relationship that is quite warm and entertaining.

The plot concerns abnormalities in the signals emanating from the center of the Earth. Young Jia (Kaylee Hottle) still bonds with Kong, as she too is the last surviving member of her tribe and is having visions that are connected to the strange signals. For reasons unexplained, scientist Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) discovers the only one who can help figure this all out is Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry).

As for the human characters, Hall, Henry, Hottle, and new meat Dan Stevens do fine and the film can be forgiven for the perfunctory manner in which it presents the human stories. Stevens is particularly fun as a hippie-veterinarian who saves Kong’s infected tooth and joins in the adventures deep within Hollow Earth. As a good deal of humor runs through the film’s screenplay, Henry (returning to his role from the last film) and Stevens are the source of some of the film’s funniest lines.

The picture’s only real issue is in the way the characters speak only in exposition and do so in too rapid a manner. They move fast and spit out their lines as if the director told them, “Hurry, we need to get to the action.” Even in a film such as this, it is okay to slow down.