The Monsterverse that lurks beneath us

Monarch Legend of Monsters (2023)
Miniseries S1, E1-10.

There was a time in our childhood when gigantic creatures roamed the streets of Tokyo, and superheroes like Ultraman and Golda manifested to save the day. The storyline was predictable. A benign creature, having been exposed to the effects of the A-bombs, undergoes mutation but stays underground. A freak event would bring it to the surface. The beast then would go on a rampage. Just when there is no hope, the Japanese superhero appears to save the day. Yay!

Looks like much has changed since I last viewed them.

Godzilla and contemporaries, MUTOs, massive unidentified terrestrial organisms from Japan, have gone mainstream. A narrative has been created to link many seismic events worldwide over the years to these monsters' activities. It is called the Monsterverse. For example, the H-bomb detonation at Bikini Atoll was not a military exercise. It was meant to neutralise one of these monsters, but it had got away.

The story timeline flip-flops from 1952 through 1982 to 2015. A little background knowledge about King Kong, his encounter with Godzilla in 2014, and Skull Island would help. Otherwise, the film would be a confusing mishmash of incoherent storytelling.

The miniseries tells about Monarch, a secret global organisation that supposedly tries to track MUTOs, predict their appearance and prevent human casualties. Many endeavours thus far over the years have proved futile. These creatures go underground through unique portals beneath the Earth's surface. There is an alternate living space beneath Earth where time moves slowly. One month spent there could be equivalent to 50 years on Earth! It creates a lot of confusion when one of the characters falls into a portal but returns later.

Snake Plissken

The miniseries tells the story of a pair of half-siblings who discover each other when they receive news that their father is dead. They discover that their father led a double life with two families and a secret expedition with international ramifications. The saga spans three generations and is a whirlpool of twists and adventures.

The exciting idea employed in the miniseries is using a father-son combination to tell a character's story at different times. Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell act out this role.

Interestingly, Malaysians were first exposed to Kurt Russell in the Western TV series Quest (1976). Here, Russell, kidnapped by Cheyenne, met his long-lost brother to team up to track down their sister. Later, he was famous as the eye patch-donning tough guy Snake Plissken in Escape from New York (1981). 

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