What weather experts say to expect this summer in Canada
Get ready to feel the heat, Canada. Weather experts are predicting more sunshine and warmer temperatures for the summer.
Hot on the heels of last year’s “Godzilla Minus One,” the first ever Academy Award winner in the giant reptile’s decades-long film career, comes “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.”
The Oscar-winning movie focussed on drama more than destruction, but the new film is pure spectacle, a ballet of kaiju chaos for fans. Set three years after “Godzilla vs. Kong,” the last entry in the MonsterVerse franchise, a new enemy has emerged.
“For most of human civilization, we believed that life could only exist on the surface of our planet,” says Kong Research Director Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall). “What else were we wrong about? This world has more secrets than we could possibly imagine."
Having defeated Mechagodzilla the last time around, the Godzilla, his atomic breath, and King Kong, the ruler of a subterranean ecosystem deep within the Earth called “Hollow Earth,” face a new threat.
When Andrews discovers large red hand marks on Skull Island, imprints that did not come from Kong, it becomes clear there is another giant ape with his eye set on taking over Skull Island, and beyond.
Even at 337 feet (102.7 m), and equipped with a giant axe and a mechanized power glove, Kong isn’t capable of doing battle on his own.
“They don’t have to like one another,” says the “hippy dippy Ace Ventura” veterinarian Dr. Trapper (Dan Stevens). “They just have to work together.”
Val Lewton, and generations of horror-suspense directors who followed, kept their monsters off screen as long as possible. It was “less-is-more” filmmaking, which understood your brain would fill in the blanks; that what you didn’t see would be scarier than anything they could show you.
Godzilla in a scene from "Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire." (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)
It allowed the imagination to run wild, but “Godzilla x Kong” leaves nothing to the imagination: it is a bigger-is-better movie, the cinematic equivalent of a monster truck rally.
It’s all about Kong, Godzilla and new characters like the 318-foot (96.8 m) tall simian titan, Skar King, and an adorable-but-feisty mini-Kong named Suko, leaving a trail of carnage behind them.
The human characters exist only to explain things, provide occasional comic relief, utter lines like, “What the bloody hell is that?” and look in awe as the titans do battle. On the plus side, Brian Tyree Henry and Dan Stevens do look like they’re having fun.
The CGI is dodgy from time to time, the clunky story is essentially an excuse to pit Kong and Godzilla against other titans and it doesn’t have the grace or emotion of “Godzilla Minus One,” but “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” turns it up to 11.
It’s a crowd pleaser, although mileage may vary, depending on your level of fandom of rock 'em sock 'em action that comes in and goes out with a roar.
3 out of 5 stars
Get ready to feel the heat, Canada. Weather experts are predicting more sunshine and warmer temperatures for the summer.
More than four years after COVID-19 effectively shut down the world, two new variants of COVID-19 have become the dominant strains of the novel coronavirus in Canada.
Israeli tanks mounted raids across Rafah in defiance of the World Court for a second day on Wednesday, after Washington said the assault did not amount to a major ground operation in the southern Gazan city that U.S. officials have warned Israel to avoid.
Canadian figure-skating icon Tessa Virtue is expecting her first child, she revealed via social media Tuesday.
Five additional Ontario school boards and two independent private schools have joined a lawsuit against the owners of multiple social media platforms, including Snapchat, TikTok, and Facebook.
A professional kiteboarder from P.E.I. says he has been seriously injured in a shark attack that occurred while he was snorkelling in the Turks and Caicos Islands last week.
A WestJet flight heading to Calgary had to make an emergency landing in northern B.C. Monday due to an incident involving an 'unruly passenger,' Mounties say.
North Korea flew hundreds of balloons carrying trash and manure toward South Korea in one of its most bizarre provocations against its rival in years, prompting the South’s military to mobilize chemical and explosive response teams to recover objects and debris in different parts of the country.
New evidence suggests that feeding children smooth peanut butter during infancy and early childhood can help reduce their risk of developing a peanut allergy even years later.
A professional kiteboarder from P.E.I. says he has been seriously injured in a shark attack that occurred while he was snorkelling in the Turks and Caicos Islands last week.
Debby Lorinczy remembers her father as an amazing person and as a man who also made an amazing discovery.
It's been a long time coming, but one Oilers superfan is hoping this will be the year he gets to touch up his massive Stanley Cup back tattoo.
A man's daring rescue of a newborn wild foal that was trapped after falling down a steep embankment was caught on video over the weekend.
A Winnipeg pinball wizard is heading to the granddaddy of them all – the IFPA World Pinball Championship.
It’s the chance of a lifetime for a group of Ottawa athletes who are getting ready to represent Team Canada at the World Junior Ultimate championships in the United Kingdom.
Parishioners at Holy Trinity Anglican Church are praying for a monetary miracle, as their historic place of worship could collapse at any moment.
A Saskatchewan man made it to the summit of Mount Everest earlier this month.
IAMGOLD’s Cote Gold open pit mine, located off Highway 144 between Timmins and Sudbury, had its official ribbon-cutting ceremony this week as production ramps up.