Kong: Skull Island - 25 Easter Eggs & References You Must See

King Kong lives. And by the look of it, he's going to be one of the biggest box office draws of the year.

The film works best if you gleefully accept the 12-year-old monster movie fan inside you and let them take the driving seat for a couple of hours. It's not clever, but it's entertaining in a purer sort of way, with spectacle, action sequences and a strange humorous tone that takes the place of more subtle things like characterisation and plot development. And there are admittedly a lot of good ideas in there, even when some don't fully work.

The film is essentially a love letter to Vietnam movies (especially in the very blatant way they've reappropriated almost every Vietnam film soundtrack) as well as the Godzilla franchise itself, and it definitely knows where it's come from. Judging by that stinger after the credits (which you should absolutely stay for), it also knows where it and Legendary's shared Monsterverse are headed too.

As director Jordan Vogt-Roberts promised, the film is chocked-full of reference points, in-jokes and specific Easter Eggs, and there's a lot of fun to be had in spotting as many as possible...