This is a scene from the movie "Godzilla vs. Kong." The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. (CNS/Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures)

By Catholic News Service

Visually spectacular but dramatically feeble creature feature from director Adam Wingard.

In following up both 2019’s “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” and “Kong: Skull Island” from 2017, screenwriters Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein entangle the titular showdown in the varied strands of interaction among an ensemble cast with the result that the outsized brutes prove a good deal more interesting than the puny humans. The latter include an orphaned deaf girl (Kaylee Hottle) who has won Kong’s affection, her adoptive mother (Rebecca Hall), a linguist who tries to communicate with the big simian, an eccentric podcaster (Brian Tyree Henry) intent on uncovering shenanigans at a high-tech conglomerate, the teen (Millie Bobby Brown) who becomes his protegé and a scientist (Alexander Skarsgard) on a quest to reach the center of the earth.

Those in search of special effects and crashing skyscrapers will eventually be well satisfied, film fans looking for memorable characters, not so much.

Frequent stylized violence, at least one use of profanity, several milder oaths, about a half-dozen crude terms, a couple of crass expressions. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Click here for full reviews of this and other current movies by Catholic News Service.