Quick Bulletpoint Thoughts:

- Absolutely gorgeous film. Larry Fong killed it with the cinematography, with the bright colors popping out and the Vietnam era muddy haze filter. One of the best looking modern blockbusters I've ever seen

-I loved that it was a dumb monster movie. Basically told you straight up it was gonna be goofy and I enjoyed it more on that level.

-When the creatures and especially Kong was on screen, it was great. You really feel the scale of the monsters and it gives it a grand feeling. And this is a bit more heavy on the monsters than Godzilla was, which I appreciate

-John C. Reilly is a national treasure and he came through with a memorable hilarious character with some heart. Best performance of the movie.

-Samuel L Jackson was super hammy in his role, but in a good way. Elevated his character even though the motivation is kinda dumb
-I thought the military group's part of the movie was fairly entertaining, with Mitchell and Whigham's dynamic being pretty funny and engaging.

-Soundtrack was a bit too Suicide Squad at times but at least the music made sense thematically

-I don't think I liked a movie as much as I do this one with the lead roles being such a vacuum of nothingness. I love Tom Hiddleston but I literally forgot his character existed at times, which isn't good. I've never seen a movie give an ACADEMY AWARD WINNING actress less to do in my life. But hey, I'm not going to complain too much about a movie where Brie plays a 70s flower child esque character and she just runs in a tight tank top for two hours.

-I could have done without the war messages this movie was throwing at me. I know they're going for an Apocalypse Now vibe visually here, which I'm down for because I LOVE that movie but you can't be serious in a movie where Tom Hiddleston slices up monsters with a sword wearing a gas mask like a ninja. Tonally weird at times

-In spite of that, REALLY liked the goofiness of it. If you're gonna be a dumb movie (Assassin's Creed, Fantastic Four, etc), at least have fun with it so I can have a good time with it. I liked that this MOSTLY committed to that.

Fun movie, I'd recommend it.