By no means a thinking person's film, Godzilla vs. Kong nonetheless has moments of something like--what might be called--you could say--intelligence. Perhaps the smartest thing it did, for instance, was cast Kaylee Hottle in the part of Jia, a young girl who can talk to Kong. Both actress and character are deaf; when she first appears, the filmmakers pull off a nifty perspective shift by sucking out most of the sound. Later, we learn that Jia communicates with the big monkey the same way certain primate researchers interact with their subjects: in sign language. So not only does a deaf kid get to star in a major monster picture--it also makes effortless, plot-relevant sense to have her there.

Universal Pictures built its legacy with horror movies featuring Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolf Man during the heydays of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi in the 1930s and '40s. More recently, the studio has made a well-publicized bet that it can create a series of successful films by bringing those creatures back from the dead. But its long-gestating plan to transform old-school monsters into modern-day blockbusters hit a snag last weekend, as the big-budget Tom Cruise movie "The Mummy" flopped at the domestic box office. The weak opening underscores the challenges facing studios as they seek to revive old franchises for contemporary audiences that have more options than going to the multiplex. "This is a brand they're trying to create, and it's a horrible start," said Jeff Bock, a box-office analyst for Exhibitor Relations. "There is a learning curve, and that's what Universal will probably write this off as." Studios have always relied on sequels and reboots to capitalize on the popularity of well-known material.