“Is that a monkey?”

very quickly, the movie is pretty clear on its light — and even ironic — tone. the characters' introduction are rushed off so that we can get quickly to the action where we find kong having fun with those tiny helicopters, hilarious exchanges of upclose shots between kong and sam l jackson eyes and later some epic deaths (the ant kill, the 'camera keeps flashing after the fact' kill and the gtfo kill — this last one "killed" me). but despite the tone, they're able to make some pretty meaningful and evoking parallels between the invasion of skull island & the vietnam war, and the post-war life of soldiers.

and of course a word on the incredible visuals — some of them logically reminiscent of those slo-mo/fast-mo solo fight scenes in snyder's 300, both movies sharing the same dp — that combined with the theatricality of the script make for a terrific piece of entertainment.