Two ancient titans, Godzilla and Kong, clash in an epic battle as humans unravel their intertwined origins and connection to Skull Island’s mysteries.

We’ve heard of way too many franchises overstaying their welcome lately, but it’s been a while since a film of this scale has failed so spectacularly to answer the question of why it was made. Godzilla vs Kong culminated the MonsterVerse in a battle between two famous characters we’d never seen on-screen before. This is the exact same movie, but without any of what made parts of that movie tolerable. Story, logic, and sense are all but myths in this movie that never quite finds the answer as to what that punch or special offering is that the last film didn’t have. Godzilla and King of the Monsters had massive visual scale, making the human damage and stakes feel wide and consequential, and as a result, the monsters felt huge. Kong: Skull Island had a fun pace and was a visually striking survival action film on an island. But now, the look feels so artificial, the stakes are unclear and boring, and the progression of the story, characters, and locations are exhausting. The visual effects are unconvincing and as a result don’t give you that large, adventurous feel, and the actors feel like they’re wandering through a Warner Bros. studio, struggling to keep this thing together. Rebecca Hall is a great actor to lead a film where the CGI extravaganza comes first, but even her character feels like she has no idea how to make sense of her dialogue. Dan Stevens delivers a fun Crocodile Dundee-esque performance as a Titan veterinarian, and Brian Tyree Henry is the only truly entertaining part of the film as a conspiracy theorist-turned-world-saver after the events of the last film. Not even Godzilla seems able to find himself a place in this film, as his progression throughout the film is probably the lamest thing that can happen to a titular character in a monster movie of this size.

Films like Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire are either made or broken by the visual and cinematic experience, and how they make use of being a grand adventure with enjoyment and spectacle, but what we’re left with is a film with neither of those things. The exposition and plot threads are bland and inconsistent with the franchise, the villains are incredibly underwhelming, and worst of all, it does nothing to differentiate itself from the previous installment. Perhaps bringing back Adam Wingard to direct was the film’s first and greatest mistake, as the stylistic approach of the last film simply wasn’t sufficient for a sequel. What worked when the MonsterVerse began was that these are gigantic events, disaster/monster movies where unbelievable Kaiju rampage the Earth, the stakes and conflicts are to be taken seriously, and the principles of the humans and their relations with the Titans guided the script and the fate of the world. Now, they’re no different than the Transformers movies, where creatures created by computers move across the screen like athletes and are treated like Marvel superheroes with devices and powers, as the structures around them go down like Legos. The worst part about a franchise like this is when it can’t excite; when it’s never been clearer that the best and coolest stuff has already come in past films, and when it’s repeating itself like the only reason it truly has to exist is every blockbuster saga’s greatest curse: studio box office ambitions.