Following the new trailer premiere this morning, the first reviews for the Apple TV+ series “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” are in and the word is good.
The series unfolds within the continuity of Legendary’s MonsterVerse franchise, events taking place after those of 2014’s “Godzilla” which saw San Francisco levelled as two siblings tries to uncover their family’s connection to the secretive organization known as Monarch.
The first five episodes of the series have been released to the media and have managed to so far pull in a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 63/100 on Metacritic. The tone of numerous reviews seems like genuine surprise over how good it can be.
That said there are common criticisms, most of which are levelled at some of the fresher faces here who have been given some underserved characters. Here’s a sampling of quotes:
“‘Monarchy: Legacy of Monsters’ understands the (TV) medium is the message, effectively marrying action, scale, and mystery to the needs and demands of small-screen human drama.” – Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist
“There aren’t many purely great things in life, but Kurt Russell saying, ‘Dinner time, you son of a bitch’ while doing battle with an enormous monster emerging from beneath the earth is certainly one of them.” – Chase Hutchinson, Collider
“By taking [Godzilla’s] mood and its grasp of monsters as awe-inspiring – and sometimes horrifying – spectacle and blending it with a human component, we get a true link that the Monsterverse desperately needed.” – Daniel Dockery, Polygon
“If you’re coming to this series expecting to see lots of giant monsters battle (like I was), you’ll be mildly disappointed because this is a character-driven story. The pilot episode is fantastic.” – Jeanine T. Abraham, VisAbleBlackwoman
“For a live-action Godzilla show, it consciously tries its damndest to capture the franchise’s different flavors of human storytelling … and that level of thoroughness in its creative philosophy is very admirable.” – Evan Dossey, Midwest Film Journal
“But as improbable as it sounds, its focus on individual people spurred to action by the emergence of Godzilla and his fellow Titans is exactly what makes the show a surprise delight – one that feels like it has potential to be both a proper hit for Apple TV+ and a strong step forward for the MonsterVerse franchise as a whole.” – Charles Pullam-Moore, The Verge
“As an expansion of the MonsterVerse franchise, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is ambitious and looks great on screen, but the first batch of episodes fails to capitalize on the potential for this epic story.” – Alex Maldy, JoBlo
Matt Shakman directs from a script by Chris Black with the latter serving as showrunner. The ten-episode series premieres with two episodes on November 17th and runs through until January 12th.
