EDIT: It has now been revealed the original film/script was radically different, longer, and explained many of my issues presented in this review. Studios, stop butchering your films to be more palatable to audiences.

This is what happens when the people who say, "Godzilla movies don't need to have good human stories," get their way. Easily one of the weakest Godzilla films ever made and the worst of this series. You're not a fan of this franchise if you say Godzilla movies don't need story. Every one so far has had an interesting enough script to justify it's monster bits, even the worst Showa or Heisei outings do more. It's not even really sure what it wants to be. Kong is propped up as the hero and clearly the protagonist of this story with Gojira making cameos as he hunts the organization Apex, but then Kong just loses anyways. What purpose is there for even setting up these monsters as sympathetic when all writing and soul is tossed out the minute they start brawling in Hong Kong. It actually forgets humans exist for a good four minutes as these two punching bags throttle around neon buildings. Craft is gone, it turns into The Avengers, with barely any collateral damage. "Oh but, you can follow the journey through the monsters! You don't need humans to have that nuance." Oh really? Godzilla doesn't like Kong being off his island, he puts him in his place, story done. Talk about deep. No moments to breath or for a character to properly react. This is hot off the heels of King of the Monsters, a film that continues the themes of Skull Island and Gareth Edward's Godzilla. Dougherty's outing before this deeply explored the themes of what it means to live with these monsters on Earth. How do you continue living when a relative of yours has been taken at the hands of one of them, do you shut yourself off or do you try to change the world? Emma became essentially so riddled with guilt she released the devil on Earth. How are these monsters really not so different from us, considering they were birthed out of our own arrogant, persistent lust for control over this world. It's too much to get in to, but that film dealt a great deal with overcoming grief, putting your faith in God, coexistence, and forgiveness. Mark's scene where he looks in to Godzilla's eyes and finally restores his faith is one of my favorite moments from this series. There is nothing in Godzilla vs. Kong that could be remotely construed as a plot. Charles Dance's role has been replaced for some reason, we have a wacky podcast conspiracy guy that serves as just a walking prop for the viewer to see world explanations, Kyle Chandler as Mark has been reduced to a cameo, and on that note: Why is he working at Monarch? He consistently hated Godzilla until he had a change of heart and faith by virtue of Serizawa and Mothra. Monarch didn't change to the good guy, they're still an organization on the cusp of lawsuit and government shutdown. Would GvK mind explaining that for us? How and when was Apex formed? How is it possible the creation of MechaGodzilla never leaked out? The world has been introduced to the titans. It's plainly established everyone is obsessed with these things, the internet and news won't shut up about them. The government doesn't know this is how Apex is using their power supply? In '14, it's at least explained their research on the MUTO was a government cover up for Monarch, that's why Joe in that film became a crackpot theorist who wouldn't let the nuclear incident go. But it's not 2013 anymore, the creatures are no longer a big secret. In King of the Monsters, the people unleashing Ghidorah to rival Godzilla are small band of eco-terrorists, they aren't a multi-billion dollar corporation. It makes no sense and done so much more poorly. It's rushed and done with quips. The most we ever get in terms of world building is a single shot of a map and newspapers, talking about the UN vetoing Godzilla or Apex facilities springing up across the map. We don't hear internal communication or even have a Senate scene like in this last film. The world has simultaneously been expanded greatly and shrunken to nothing, something Pacific Rim Uprising also horrifically accomplished. This series was built off the foundation of engaging with this science fiction, government monster universe through the lens of a sympathetic every-man that's been hurt by the monsters in some way, usually a familial death. Dr. Nathan Lind is given two words to establish he lost a brother in the Hollow Earth, but nothing ever comes of that information. Humans? There are storytelling devices used to get the audience from scene to scene. In the same span of runtime, from '14 to this, Bryan Cranston is grieving over his dying wife, to this has a fat guy making jokes about toasters. The most amount of interesting character development are thrown away in two very specific pieces of dialogue. The little native girl's family was killed by the storm surrounding skull island, which we saw in Kong's film, as was the whole island wiped out. I imagine there was a sequence that explored this and able to give a more tragic or perhaps resounding, uplifting message of sticking with family even when you've suffered so much loss. It would fit the overarching narrative that's stuck to this MonsterVerse so far, but it seems the cutting room floor did a number to this movie, as even stated by director Adam Wingard. It really does feel like the movie is playing damage control. Audiences didn't understand the previous films' stories, so they got fed up trying to understand them and just declared they don't want any characters in these movies. So we get walking action figures that say the words necessary to get us to our next fight. The best potential that existed in one of these dolls was Shun Oguri's character, Ren Serizawa, who is related to the Serizawa of previous films, the one who sacrificed himself to save Godzilla and prove humanity needed to accept him as their king. It was a very touching, holy piece in the last film, and Ren could work as an antagonistic son who resents his father for giving up his life to this monster he doesn't understand, and we could go through a similar arc Mark Russel did in the last film. None of this is realized, he is a dummy test pilot told to get in the goddamn chair, like it's an Evangelion reference. The most amount of enjoyment anyone could get out of this is the splodge of CGI dumped on to the screen with no visual grace or narrative substance. If that's all you want, then I pity what this means for blockbusters. Edwards crafted a fantastic character movie in 2013 and the series has been handed a blow here.

Why the shit would you get someone known for incredibly dull horror movies to helm what's meant to be "The Avengers" of the monsterverse?

This film is in dire need of a director. It looks like it was pieced together in the edit because so much of it is just shots of actors looking confused at a camera. As in, they just don't seem present in the scene in a logical way.
Millie Bobby Brown can clearly act, but she doesn't seem to know what character she's playing. I sure as hell don't either after watching this.
Rebecca Hall looks like she's just stood up at a table read.
Eiza Gonzalez clearly just got told "kinda do a Michelle Rodriguez impression IDK" at some point and that's all that comes across.
Kyle Chandler is in about two scenes and frankly why did they bother? His presence makes little contextual sense, and he also doesn't seem to even know what continent his whacky high jinks daughter is on at any one time, which gives that whole plot an element of farce.

Godzilla doesn't even seem to be the same creature from the last movie, not in terms of their physical presence or actions. Something is just 'off' about his face and head that makes him seem weirdly artificial.
Kong was well done overall and his arc was the only thing that even tried to make sense in the film and saved it from getting worse than a 5/10.

Godzilla vs. Kong is the biggest scam since Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. It promises a battle of epic proportions, but doesn't have the balls to give us a winner. The late introduction of Mechagodzilla is meant to give the titular characters a common enemy, allowing them to put their differences – whatever these may be – aside and work together. They want to have their cake and eat it too.

The film tries to sell us on the idea that Earth is too small for two “alpha titans.” It doesn't occur to anyone that it might be too small for just one; then again, given that both Kong’s and Godzilla’s presence lacks weight, mass, volume, and depth, neither of them can be said to take up physical space on the planet (not to mention that most of the ‘real world’ surrounding them has been as unconvincingly rendered as they have).

It is, however, during an expedition to the so-called Hollow Earth that the VFX department really blows its CGI wad. There is no excess they won’t indulge in, and yet it’s not enough to hide the fact that Earth isn't the only hollow thing here – so is the script, which is unable to give us a single good reason why we should care about the skirmishes between a giant lizard and a giant gorilla.

You can't have two characters fight each other just because, no matter how ‘cool’ it might seem in theory; they must have a compelling motive, lest the audience loses interest in the outcome. This is such a basic concept that even the later, lesser Rocky installments understand it. But here, Godzilla and Kong just don't seem to like each other very much; even Tom and Jerry, who at least are natural enemies, have a better excuse for their enmity.

To sum up, 1) we don't know why a primate and a reptile would want to fight to the death; 2) the explanation the movie provides doesn’t make sense (I mean, Hollow Earth? Puh-lease!); 3) Kong and Godzilla are so phony-looking there is never any concern that they will hurt one another, however much they try; and 4) it's a foregone conclusion that neither is going to take a dive, needed as they are for the inevitable sequels. All things considered, why watch this movie when you can see Peter Griffin fight a giant chicken on YouTube?

So after many years of flukes and alright and great movies over a decade we officially get a face off between the 2 and it kicked ass. buildings came down people died and these 2 fought a mechanical version. it is the end to a good red vs blue kinda movie.

Godzilla vs Kong a rematch 60 years in the making . I think this is the movie a lot of people wanted to see especially seeing that the last time is to where in a movie together was in 1962.

The fights in the movie are amazing the standout being the fight in Hong Kong between Godzilla and King Kong but the boat battle and the mechagodzilla Fight are also very well done as well.

The characters are fine noting amazing but noting awful my favorite being the mom and the daughter their relationship was very well done overall, this movie just gave me what I wanted, which was a rematch between the two most iconic movie monsters, Godzilla and King Kong