With Apple TV+’s series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, based on Legendary’s MonsterVerse, having ended its first season run of 10 episodes (click here for my reviews of episodes 1-4), I’m generally satisfied with the series and looking forward to what a second series might offer. Following are my spoiler-free thoughts on series one overall.
The story, which takes place after the battle between Godzilla and the Titans as seen in Gareth Edwards’ 2014 Godzilla, focuses on different timelines, mainly the reunion of half-siblings Cate Randa (Anna Sawai), whose up-close witnessing of Godzilla’s 2014 emergence in San Francisco has left her with PTSD — and Kentaro (Ren Watabe) as they attempt to uncover the mystery of their usually absent father Hiroshi Randa (Takehiro Hira), which leads them to meeting up and eventually adventuring with former U.S. Army Colonel Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell), who had plenty of experience as a younger man (played by his son Wyatt Russell) with Monarch and tracking down kaiju alongside scientist Keiko (Mari Yamamoto) and cryptozoologist Bill Randa (Anders Holms) several decades earlier. These final three characters and their research makes for the second main plot of the series.
There’s no questioning the high quality of the acting, direction, and production values of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. Everything looks stunning, and the different plots — which at first may seem jarring but that become easier to follow after getting to know the characters and their motivations — are intriguing. The familial drama and intrigue feel realistic.
A main issue that some viewers will have — and yes, I am one of them — is that the series is rather light on kaiju (called Titans here) action. Some of the Godzilla footage has been borrowed from one or more Legendary films, and the new footage uses new creatures rather than those well known to kaiju fans. Of course, the kaiju-action-to-human-drama debate is an issue that many viewers have when new Godzilla movies are released, but over the course of a series that runs approximately 450 minutes as opposed to 90- to 120-minute feature films, I expected more screen time for monsters.
I enjoyed each episode but my least favorite is episode 7, “Will the Real May Please Stand Up?”, which focused almost solely on Kentaro’s tech-head ex-girlfriend May (Kiersey Clemons), who had been a character with a mysterious — and to that point, undiscussed — past, and here her troubles catch up with her. This episode will sit better with viewers interested in conspiracy thrills and corporate intrigue, but for me it felt like a placeholder episode that gave only a cursory kaiju appearance at the tail end of the episode. Granted, I am the kind of person who loved the “monster of the week” episodes of The X-Files more than the shadowy conspiracy ones.
As I mentioned in my review of the first four episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, “I prefer the good old days of rubber suit giant monsters, [but] the CGI kaiju look terrific. Viewers expecting wall-to-wall giant-monster fights are bound to be a little disappointed, but those who prefer engaging human plots between kaiju appearances will feel well rewarded with the first four episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.” The series is definitely an overall winner, and I stand by my initial assessment that it is “a can’t miss for creature-feature aficionados.”
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters made its global debut on Apple TV+ with the first two episodes debuting on Friday, November 17, 2023, followed by one episode every Friday through January 12, 2024.
