I really didn’t think Godzilla vs. Kong was a film for me – I usually cannot stand watching two big CGI monsters fight each other and that is literally the plot of this movie – but the fight scenes here are a cut above your average and the film as a whole was way more entertaining than I was expecting.

The film, which serves as a sequel to Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Kong: Skull Island, stars Alexander Skarsgard as Nathan, a former Monarch geologist who is tasked with moving Kong from the safety of his giant dome on Skull Island, where he is looked after by Ilene (Rebecca Hall) and her deaf adopted daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle), into the Hollow Earth, the true home of the titans, to retrieve an energy source to supposedly stop Godzilla’s unprovoked rampages. As we already know from the franchise, there can’t be two alpha titans so Godzilla soon comes for his enemy Kong.

From reading this summary, you can probably tell that the plot is threadbare, contrived, and doesn’t make a ton of sense, but considering this is a film about a face-off between two massive monsters, you shouldn’t go in expecting a solid screenplay, well-rounded characters, or any sort of depth. This is a Blockbuster with a capital B; it’s all about the action and the spectacle so don’t expect anything else. It is silly, but it knows it is, and it’s a lot of mindless fun.

I usually tune out during action sequences after a while because I find them boring but these ones really captured my attention. None of Godzilla and Kong’s fights outstayed their welcome and they looked so cool to watch, from the fight choreography, the way they were shot, the slo-mo punches and jumps, and the setting. I particularly loved the Hong Kong battleground, with them being lit up by the colourful skyscrapers and just destroying the city entirely. The stakes aren’t super high because you know Warner Bros. would never kill such a profitable property off but it’s still great fun to watch.

Given the title, you might expect this film to be evenly split between the two titans but this is very much Kong’s movie, with appearances from Godzilla. I’m usually a big fan of Godzilla but I really was on team Kong this team around. He has just been so well designed that he has such an expressive face and I couldn’t help but feel sad when he did. I also loved his bond with Jia and their ability to communicate.

I’m surprised so many big names signed up to this considering how dull and paper thin the characters are. Hall and Hottle have a bit more substance thanks to their relationship with Kong, but Skarsgard, Demian Bichir as the CEO of Apex Cybernetics and Eiza Gonzalez as his daughter get so little to do and the human scenes are so flat in comparison to the rest. Normally I switch off in action scenes, but I switched off during those here. Brian Tyree Henry and Julian Dennison – who team up with Millie Bobby Brown to investigate what Apex is up to – were the only ones who tried to inject personality and humour into their characters and were mildly successful.

Godzilla vs. Kong, directed by Adam Wingard, is much better than I ever expected it would be. If you just embrace the silly spectacle, you will have a great time. See it on a big screen if you can because it looks amazing.

Available for premium rental at home now