Parents' Guide to Godzilla vs. Kong

This movie is great if you only want to see King Kong and Godzilla fight, but aside from their much advertised matchup, there's not much else to it. Characters from previous Godzilla franchise films—including Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler) and his daughter, Madison (Brown), are mixed in with new folks to try to flesh out the Godzilla universe. But regardless of whether someone is from the franchise or is brand new, it's hard to know why we should care about them or their backstories. In some cases, we don't even learn their names until near the end of the film.

That lack of cohesion is also present in the threadbare "story." Godzilla vs. Kong knows that its main draw is the CGI fight between the two titular monsters. Apart from that, there's no coherent plotting or character development. Also, despite the diversity in the cast, including Henry, Hall, Dennison, Shun Oguri, Demián Bichir, and Eiza González, there's no true focus on expanding their characters' meaning to the plot aside from using them for the optics of inclusion. For instance, Oguri's character, Apex Cybernetics researcher and Mechagodzilla pilot Ren Serizawa, continues the annoying trend in the current Godzilla franchise of having a Japanese character be part of the cast apparently solely to say "Gojira," the monster's actual name. Along with that, he's mostly a sneering henchman for Bichir's character, Apex CEO Walter Simmons. Simmons' daughter, Maya (González), is also simply a flat villain with limited lines. Overall, the film is a mess. But if you just want to see two legendary titans brawl, it's entertaining for that aspect alone.