Traction isn’t something that should usually bother your average Kaiji, mainly because the big bastards are usually carrying hundreds of thousands of pounds of bulk around as they stomp from place to place – however, at this point in Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters, some traction would seem to be of some great benefit as the show seems to be continually stuck on the precipice of getting to its point.
While I’m not the sort of immature fan who tears their hair out when a monster show tries to infuse their human characters with a little more dimension, I have to admit that after seven episodes, the writers haven’t exactly made their main characters the most likable bunch of humans in the MonsterVerse with their backstories only serving slow things down to a crawl as they proceed to whine and complain their way across the globe. Simply put, Monarch needs to get some forward momentum and it needs to get it the way it’s always got in in the past – by going backward…
With Lee Shaw’s plan now fully revealed, the ex-Monarch founder and his group of sympathetic followers turns his attention from Akaska to Kazakhstan in his quest to block off all the possible entry points that the monsters have been using to breach our world. How does Lee know about these? Simple, because back in the fifties he tasked Bill Randa to knock up a map of all confirmed monster sightings in order to save Monarch’s funding.
Those of you proficient in the ins and outs of the MonsterVerse’s timeline will realise how important this will be as it gives Randa his first clues to the theory that leads to the Hollow Earth we’re now quite familiar with and Shaw plans to plug these entry holes with explosives as a way to help Godzilla in keeping the monster population on earth heavily regulated. However, Monarch is seeing that with every hole Shaw fills, the gamma readings from other entry points rise at a worrying rate and are concerned that his mission could have disastrous consequences.
Once again injecting their personal family drama into a global concern, the Randa siblings and May agree to head Shaw off at his next port of call which proves to be especially personal considering it’s where the Randa children’s grandmother, Keiko, was eaten alive by a nastily clutch of monster bugs named Endoswarmers.
As we’re constantly drip-fed revelations concerning Keiko’s past and the exact parentage of her son, Hiroshi, Cate Randa finally gets to talk to Shaw for the first time since he peeled off to carry out his crusade, but as they both attempt to reason each other over to their opposing points of view the mother Endoswarmer decides to rock up to show everyone how much she’s grown after over the past seventy years leaving Cate, Shaw and May to get a closer look at a Hollow Earth portal than they’d like.
While Monarch hasn’t quite fallen into the traps of other modern, Kaiju related shows like Godzilla: Singular Point and Skull Island, there’s still the overwhelming feeling that the human/monster level has tipped far to much in one direction. I really don’t mind the character stuff, however, if we’re being honest, a lot of it hasn’t actually helped the characters manage to progress much, if at all. While May’s backstory tied her directly to the rise of the MechaGodzilla creating Apex company and Cate has first hand experience with Godzilla attacks, their experiences haven’t seemed to given them actually any growth and worse yet, for all the flashbacks concerning art exhibitions and chats about alcohol, Kentaro is still the same, unhelpful meaner he was seven episodes ago.
Simply put, Monarch’s main trio of characters have had seven episodes to endear themselves and by episode eight it’s pretty apparent that they’ve failed. Maybe if just one of them a relished stepping into the realms of monster hunting, they wouldn’t be such a dour trio of self absorbed complained but as it stands, whenever they’ve fully taken centre stage it’s required a heap of 50s world building, a monster attack or an appearance from Godzilla or Kurt Russell to bail an episode out.
In the absence of Twister with monsters (the Bill Paxton movie, not the party game), the surrounding universe has managed to shoulder the burden incredibly well with the MonsterVerse’s dense history making for good television but with episode 8, the strain is just getting too much where not even more fifties stuff and a giant bug monster can even buffer us. It’s not that Birthright is a bad episode – it’s actually a step up from some of the last couple of weeks – it’s just that the show really needs to build to something quicker than it has been. Simply put, we’ve watched the world building, we’ve noted the foreshadowing and we’ve rejoiced everytime Godzilla’s strode onto the screen with the glee of a Happy Days audience whenever the Fonz walks on, but even with my infinite patience with human stories in a Kaiju film, I need the good stuff.
The episode is certainly getting there – especially considering that after nullifying the Frost Vark last episode, Shaw has gone full Bond villain and next aims to take out the creatures that killed Keiko way back in the first episode. The detective work used to figure out where Shaw is plays well, Agent Tim is doing his best to keep the tone chipper – even after one of Kentaro’s pointless complaints – and Russell’s speech on what he’s trying to achieve is firmly on point and the brief but effective Endoswarmer reveal (it has more teeth than a Jurassic Park marathon) and subsequent cliff hanger all show promise, but what I require now is action.. big, unrestrained, monster action and I want it sooner rather than later.
Still even though the fifties segments this time round seem more concerned with revealing that Hiroshi isn’t Bill or Lee’s kid, but actually predates Keiko coming to America after she was left a widow; or further disputes about Monarch’s funding, there finally feels like the show is just about to pull into focus with two episodes to spare and I truly hope that they can recapture the excitement that the first third of the season did.
However, in the lack of something big, it’s the odd small moment that manages to stand out with Shaw’s claim that Godzilla isn’t just a big, dumb animal, but actually is fully aware of what he’s doing proving to be far more affecting then anything Kentaro’s had to offer for three whole episodes.
Like the extraordinary resilience of Godzilla, Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters isn’t quite out of the fight just yet and it’s still proving to be an intriguing watch, but its payoff needs to be immense, otherwise it might find that its legacy is somewhat diminished.
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