Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (Godzilla non-cartoon series (live action))

[The Guppy]

First two episodes came out on Apple TV+ today. Booooo nobody has Apple TV+! Yeah but they're always giving it away for free so if you have it, check out this Godzilla thing.

It stars Kurt Russell as Kurt Russell in the present, and Kurt Russell's son as Kurt Russell in the 1950s. John Goodman is there but I don't know who he's meant to be. And there are some attractive young people who are the actual main characters.

Present day stuff is set after the 2014 Godzilla movie, so everyone is preparing for Godzilla et al. to show up again. But I think it's set before all the goofy shit happens in the sequels.

It looks like it cost a billion dollars.

"Episode 1 and 2"

No way were that spider and crab equally matched. The crab would've pulverised the spider in one second.

I think they're setting up a love triangle between young Kurt Russell, the other bloke, and the doctor. But the doctor looked fatally fucked at the end of episode 1, and they were all pals then, so I dunno. There was that photo of her standing in a big footprint, and when she "died" she had the vibe of a woman who had never stood in a big footprint. So she probably survived that unsurvivable fall into a nest of murderbugs.

Is the other bloke young John Goodman? That's just occurred to me. So I reckon the young people and Kurt Russell will go to the island, and John Goodman will be there doing a mad hermit act, and Kurt and John won't get on because of bad blood, but they have to work together. And they'll bond over the memory of the doctor who survived falling into murderbugs but died later.

Godzilla looks great and killed a busload of kids. No fucking about.

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[beanheadmcginty]

I bet poor old Kurt Russell's son wishes he looked like a young Kurt Russell.

[Butchers Blind]

John Goodman is there but I don't know who he's meant to be. 

"Episode 1 and 2"

Is the other bloke young John Goodman?  .

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He's playing the same character as in Skull Island, and yes you're correct in the spoiler.

Enjoyed the 2 episodes so far. The characters in this seem more fleshed out than in the films.

[Funcrusher]

It stars Kurt Russell as Kurt Russell in the present

Based on the poster it looks like he's playing Morrissey in the present.

[The Guppy]

He's playing the same character as in Skull Island, and yes you're correct in the spoiler.

I forgot he was in Skull Island. My only memory of that film is Gollum getting his head eaten.

[Alberon]

Seems the same enjoyable nonsense as the films so that's fine.

Spoiler alert

Enjoying the inept Tim.

And Kurt Russell's character should be over 90 according to the documents Kentaro finds in the locked filing cabinet.

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[Jerzy Bondov]

I forgot he was in Skull Island. My only memory of that film is Gollum getting his head eaten.

That's not even Skull Island, that's PJ's King Kong.

[DreadedScotsman]

Seems the same enjoyable nonsense as the films so that's fine.

Yeah that's what I got from it, it's not trying to be to reinvent the wheel it's just a giant monster movie but in series form

[how do you like apples]

Anyone still watching this? For a show that marketed itself as being about a secret organisation that tracks monsters, one based around Godzilla and that has Kurt Russell as its star, it seems to feature very little of all three. It's been a massive letdown after the first two episodes.

[The Guppy]

I haven't watched today's episode yet, but yeah I agree. I liked the brief flashbacks to Godzilla carnage last week. But the youngsters gadding about in the ruins, trying to avoid soldiers one minute and laughing and joking the next, got right on my tits. I don't care about missing dad and his pencil shavings. The most likeable characters are the 1950s bunch and we hardly ever see them.

[Alberon]

Yeah, the last couple have been poor padding which I largely skipped through. Haven't seen the latest, though I suspect it'll only pick up towards the end.

They've mentioned Kurt Russell's character is in his 99s, but I don't know if they'll do more than lampshade it and actually explain it.

[The Guppy]

That's that then. Kurt Russell and Mari Yamamoto did a great job in the finale.

This was enjoyable overall, but it spun its wheels a lot and the main threesome were the least interesting characters. They wasted a whole episode on May's backstory when they should have had a big batdragon eat her. Kentaro's mum is cool and I liked the way she told Hiroshi she never wanted to see him again.

I guess Kurt Russell's son won't be in season 2. They could conceivably bring Lee back at some point but I don't think there'll be any more flashbacks. Likely Kurt Russell won't be back either. But swapping Kurt Russell for King Kong is a pretty good deal.

[how do you like apples]

The main Godzilla films in this franchise all suffer from the problem of unengaging human characters, and the three young ones in this are maybe the worst example yet. Thankfully the stuff in the past with Wyatt Russell was miles better, all those scenes definitely the highlights. Even preferred young Russell's performance to old, who at times felt like he was just there for the cheque.

Think the most disappointing thing was how underdeveloped the modern day Monarch organisation was. A Nasa control room filled with people and a whole lotta stuff on that big screen but very little actual work going on, mostly them just panicking what a few teenagers were doing with a secret map.

I also think the monster scenes lacked a lot of punch, the only exception really being Godzilla in the desert which definitely managed to capture the scale.

Despite all that I did enjoy it I suppose. Just didn't really help that in the middle of watching this I went to see Minus One which was another level. 

Spoiler alert

Also maybe I missed some obvious signs early on but didn't realise until finale that Bill Rander went on to be the John Goodman role in Kong

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