If you’ve seen the first disappointing trailer for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, on top of Godzilla being pink, you probably also noticed King Kong sporting a bionic arm gauntlet thing. Yeah, Legendary Entertainment and director Adam Winger are doing wonders with this franchise and these characters. During a recent interview with Total Film, Winger teased Kong’s bionic arm in the film, saying:”It’s kind of hard to say too much more than that without spoiling anything, because he has one of my favourite intros of any character I’ve ever shot in my films.”He then went on to explain:“What I will say is I’d want to play with that [action figure] if I was a kid! And though Apex isn’t in this story in a literal way, we kind of hint that Monarch absorbed a lot of the Apex technology after the last film. The glove Kong is wearing, it’s somewhat insinuated that’s Apex technology.”So that seems to confirm that the reason for all these unnecessary changes to Godzilla and Kong was implemented to sell toys to kids. It makes sense as the movie looks like a big-budget, yet mediocre Saturday morning cartoon. Look, I’m a purist when it comes to certain things like these characters, so I’m not excited about anything that I’m seeing from this movie. Everything about it has been ridiculously dumbed down and that makes me sad. The past few films Legendary has released for this Monsterverse franchise has been disappointing. My expectations are super low for this movie, so if I see it, maybe it will be better than I expected. It’s gotten decent reactions from early test screenings. We’ll just have to wait and see.In the film, “The epic battle continues! Legendary Pictures’ cinematic Monsterverse follows up the explosive showdown of Godzilla vs. Kong with an all-new adventure that pits the almighty Kong and the fearsome Godzilla against a colossal undiscovered threat hidden within our world, challenging their very existence—and our own. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire delves further into the histories of these Titans and their origins, as well as the mysteries of Skull Island and beyond, while uncovering the mythic battle that helped forge these extraordinary beings and tied them to humankind forever.”The film stars Rebecca Hall (Godzilla vs. Kong), Brian Tyree Henry (Godzilla vs. Kong), Dan Stevens (Legion), Kaylee Hottle (Godzilla vs. Kong), Alex Ferns (The Batman) and Fala Chen (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings).The screenplay is by Terry Rossio (Godzilla vs. Kong, the Pirates of the Caribbean series), Simon Barrett (You’re Next) and Jeremy Slater (Moon Knight), from a story by Rossio, Wingard & Barrett, based on the character “Godzilla” owned and created by TOHO Co., Ltd.. The movie will be released on April 12th, 2024.