Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Does the Unthinkable — It Makes Us Relate With the Humans
I like what Legendary’s been doing with the Godzilla franchise. It may not quite measure up with Toho’s work, but it’s certainly more respectable than the laughfest we got from Sony in the late 90s. And, hey, we learn a thing or two.
But one thing does stick out like a sore thumb with these movies — the human element. Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla was a fun romp, but its main character was only in there like 11 minutes. Most of the film focused on humans and their plight, and that was a big complaint about it.
Then came Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and, well, same thing. As monstrous as the battles got, we still had to deal with a family in the middle of everything, and that kind of muddled the film.
Godzilla vs. Kong was definitely the better of the three, though it had its “human” stories as well when dealing with the kid that connected with the large beast and, of course, the “greedy” corporation that learned its lesson too late with its mighty Mechagodzilla. Still, the best of the bunch.
So, yeah, “pesky” humans weren’t my favorite in the Godzilla series. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised by Apple TV+ teaming up with Legendary for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. It deals with more of the human side of the monster dilemma, which could’ve been a groaner for some. But it works very well, at least based on the two episodes I’ve seen so far.
The series sets up with Randa (John Goodman) from Kong: Skull Island getting rid of his Monarch bag in the face of death, only to narrowly avoid it. But the bag’s gone and soon recovered by another party.
It pops up years later in the midst of a family squabble, when Cate (Anna Sawai) goes looking for her dad. Instead, she finds that he actually has a second family, with a frustrated Ren (Kentaro Miura) demanding answers.
When they start digging through the Monarch files, that gets the interest of the company, who wants to keep the world of monsters safe — at any cost. That leads the duo, along with high-tech hacker May (Kiersey Clemons), to find Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell — the man himself!), who may have answers as to what’s going on.
This brings up a secondary arc in the show that works incredibly well. A younger Lee (played by Kurt’s son, Wyatt Russell) teams up with a scientist named Keiko (Mari Yamamoto) and an accidental third party named Tim (Joe Tippett) who go looking for proof of monsters in the late 60s. That leads to misadventures that I dare not spoil here.
But the two stories intertwine beautifully, and set the stage for future episodes to come. And it’s great how the stories are told. A little bit soap opera-y, sure (how many times does Cate actually just try to up and leave the situation, only to be stopped?), but director Matt Shakman (Wandavision) does a great job so far with pacing. What’s more, we’re actually interested in the humans. Gasp.
Of course, there’s hints of monster-dom (is that a word?) as well, including an appearance by Godzilla in the first episode (which ties in with Cate’s ongoing trauma, for good reason), as well as a neat creature that ties in to future episodes to come. So, yes, you’ll still get monsters with your Legacy of Monsters, but they’re part of a much bigger story.
The performances are top notch. Of course, it’s always great to see Kurt Russell do his thing and be a bad-ass, but his son Wyatt is every bit his equal, having the same kind of fun here as he did with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (it was a good show, say what you want). Sawai and Watabe are standouts in their significant characters, and I love Clemons’ spunky (but not too spunky) hacker role. The others are good, too, really adding to the overall picture. (Though, I’ll tell you, Anders Holm may be trying to be too annoying as the modern Monarch baddie, who’s related to Randa.)
I’m intrigued so far. And considering that we’ve seen what we’ve seen with our disdain for humans in past movies, that’s really something. Legendary is telling a good story here, one that could tie in with the Godzilla vs. Kong sequel that’s coming (maybe?) next year. For now, this Legacy of Monsters is setting its own footprint, and I can’t wait to see where it goes next.
As always, thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
