I hinted in an earlier review that the main reason Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters seems to exist was to add some legitimacy to the Monsterverse’s somewhat murky timeline. While some of it was sketched out either by the grave tones of Ken Watanabe’s Dr Ishirõ Serizawa in the 2014 Godzilla or further corroborated by John Goodman’s Bill Randa in 2016s Kong: Skull Island, the main clue we have to some of the most important bullet points in the life and times of this iteration of the King of the Monsters lay in the credits sequence of Gareth Edwards’ original movie.
Telling the tale of an operation put together to kill Godzilla with a nuke back in 1954 by luring him to Bikini Atoll under the guise of nuclear tests, it was one of the most tantalising insertions of Godzilla into history the franchise has given us thus far despite only being a montage.
However, thanks to Monarch (both the show and the organization), we now get to see this scene in context and it’s precisely this sort of stuff that had me so excited for the show in the first place.
Jumping ahead a further two years to 1954, we find Lee Shaw, Dr. Keiko Miura and Bill Randa trying to invite the US military to give them funding and loan them a substantial amount of uranium. They do this by freaking out the tacitern General Puckett after showing him the plaster cast of an immense footprint that undoubtedly belongs to the Titan we know as Godzilla. While the trio disagree with what tact to take, Shaw takes the lead and draws the General in by hinting that this collossal beast may end up being a threat to global security if not studied and it seems that the bait is well and truly taken.
Over in 2015, an older Shaw takes the arrival of Cate, Kentaro and May as his cue to ditch the assisted living quarters Monarch has “sequestered” him in and gladly joins the hunt in locating Cate and Kentaro’s missing father, Hiroshi, whom he claims was like a son to him.
After breaking out of this relaxing “prison”, the quartet track Hiroshi’s last flight to Alaska, but after making a quick stop over in Pohang, South Korea in order to hook up with his old buddy Du-Ho, they all take a rickety plane to a snowier climate in order to finally find out what happend and whether Hiroshi is alive or dead.
Meanwhile, back in 1954, Kaiko and Bill are horrified to find that the army has somewhat overreacted to their findings and has supplied the uranium in bomb form, hoping to lure this creature in with the radiation and then obliterate it in the ensuing blast. While Kaiko tries in vain to stop the explosion, Godzilla himself rocks up to his own, would-be, execution to stare down the bomb face to face and the thing goes off with impressive results.
Bouncing back over to 2015, the group find remains of Hiroshi plane and evidence that suggests he survived, but after Du-Ho figures out that the plane didn’t crash but was destroyed, the group is about to have a close encounter with a particularly frosty Titan.
After we first got the gist of what Monarch was actually going to be about, the first thing my mind went to was that 2014 credits sequence and how awesome it would be to witness this vital moment in MonsterVerse continuity play out in full. Not only would the majesty of Godzilla stomping out of the ocean to eyeball a nuclear bomb before it went of in his face like an uranium powered custard pie, but we’d also get the events that led up to it. Well thankfully it doesn’t disapoint with either the drama or the spectacle.
Not only do we see the events that directly led Monarch to becoming the absurdly well funded organisation we know now (despite its dip in fortune in the 70s) thanks to the efforts of Shaw, Keiko and Bill, but that pivotal moment on Bikini Atoll turns out to be pure Godzilla-themed joy. While a TV budget doesn’t allow for a lengthy set piece, director Julian Holmes picks his shots wisely, getting maximum impact while putting minimum strain on the purse strings and the low angle shot that looks up through the spines of Godzilla’s tail may be one of my favorite shots of the big guy in the entire MonsterVerse. However, even though the shot where Godzilla gets up and personal with the bomb due to kill him is cool beyond belief, the moment is played for poignancy as Keiko mourns the premature annihilation of a one of a kind creature.
Of course, we know different and even though we’re denied seeing Godzilla shrugging of the mushroom cloud like the titanic stud we know he is, it creates a fascinating pact between Lee, Keiko and Bill. Now that they have gotten the military involved, Lee seems to be aiding with his colleagues rather than his superiors, suggesting that they keep details from him in order to limit any damage the army could want to inflict on this massively dangerous and utterly unknown ecosystem. Not only does it hint of the burgeoning love triangle that’s building in the 50s section of the show but Lee’s apparent kindness may be what gave Bill the edge when it came to Keiko’s affections.
While the 2015 segments haven’t got the benefit of Godzilla to punch up proceedings, we done have someone with a similarly seismic effect on popular culture as the show finally allows Kurt Russell to cut loose and the guy us still as amiable as ever. Synching up perfectly with Wyatt Russell’s portrayal of a younger Lee (we even get an insanely satisfying dissolve between the two as we merge between the decades), he pumps new energy into Cate and Kentaro’s search, taking their frustrated speculating and actually giving them focus and direction. Before you know it, the 2015 section now kicks into gear as our modern characters now do as much globe trotting as our ones from the past as they zig zag from Japan to South Korea and then over to Alaska. What they find is a mole-like creature that not only has more flailing mandibles than a Predator orgy, but also has the ability to expel a deadly freezing mist that takes out Du-Ho far too soon.
With both sections now boasting monsters, the human element still remaining engrossing (Du-Ho giving Cate advise that she should find her father, if only to say “screw you” is a particularly nice moment) and an appropriately epic Godzilla appearance, Secrets And Lies stands out as probably the most balanced epidode yet and with seven episodes still to go, there’s plenty more MonsterVerse world building still to come.
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