Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Season Two, on Apple TV+

Some of the best Godzilla lately has come in comic book form. Where else could you see the King face off against the Power Rangers, the Marvel Universe superheroes, and literary figures like Jay Gatsby and Sherlock Holmes (in Godzilla: Monsterpiece Theatre). Arguably, the recent Japanese films, Shin Godzilla and Godzilla Minus One are as good or better, but they have come less frequently. Regardless, the Apple TV+ “Monsterverse” series has far outclassed Legendary Pictures’ films. With the release of second season, episodes are also arriving more frequently. Plus, Kurt Russell and his son Wyatt return as shoot-from-the-hip Col. Leland Shaw (or Captain in scenes from the past) in season two of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which is still releasing new episodes on Apple TV+.

Season one ended with a massive cliffhanger, trapping crusty “old” Shaw in Axis Mundi, the monster dimension. However, it is quickly resolved in season two when Cate and Kentaro Randa, the Randa step-siblings, and their ambiguous friend May Olowe-Hewitt (who are sort of like Mystery Incorporated) devise a Doctor Who-worthy plan to save him.

Unfortunately, their operation rouses a new titan from hibernation. That would Titan X, who apparently grew up in the 1980s. This kaiju also has a cooperative symbiotic relationship with a horde of armored crabs known as Scarabs. It turns out Shaw and Mari and Bill Randa have seen these creatures before—and it wasn’t much fun for them the first time, either.

Ironically, when his boss’s presumed death elevates the nebbish Tim, who still has no last name, to command of Outpost 18, the new role surprisingly suits him. Unfortunately, he will have to navigate Apex, a politically connected tech company, who temporarily wrangles control of Titan policy away from Monarch.

Frankly, just about everyone goes rogue at some point in the second season, including both Randa step-siblings, Olowe-Hewitt, and, of course, Shaw, who was born a maverick. Understandably, the destructiveness of Titan rampages brings out strong feelings in the characters and inspires very different strategies to prevent them.

Much of season two feels like one step forward followed by one step back, or vice versa. However, a late season episode, “String Theory” written by Joe Pokaski and directed by Gandja Monteiro, understands what fans have been hoping for. It doesn’t quite happen, but Kurt and Wyatt Russell, who both play the younger and older Shaw, sort of, kind of participate in a sequence of scene. Thy obviously can’t be on-screen together, but the workaround solution is satisfyingly clever.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Season Finale

When it launched in November, Apple’s Monsterverse series could feel confident it compared favorably with Legendary’s most recent, underwhelming film, Godzilla vs. Kong. However, the stakes suddenly started rising when Godzilla Minus One became a surprise breakout hit, largely redefining the entire kaiju genre for millions of Americans. Today, loyal viewers learn whether their investment on Monarch: Legacy of Monsters concludes its first season when “Beyond Logic” premieres today on Apple TV+.

During the mayhem of episode six, Cate Randa was sucked into an in-between Monsterverse dimension along with Lee Shaw. That would be the older, Kurt Russell Lee Shaw, not the younger Lee Shaw played by Wyatt Russell in flashbacks. It turns out there is a reason why Shaw looks so spry for a nonagenarian. Time runs much slower in the realm of monsters, so several decades passed in our world while Shaw was lost in the monster-realm.

Shaw wants to limit the time Randa and her friend May will lose in the in-between dimension. However, they need to attract a titan to open the portal. That they do—a little too successfully.

Episode nine is probably the slowest installment of the season, because it is built around the series’ angstiest and least action-oriented flashbacks. However, the conclusion obviously was deliberately intended to deliver everything fans were hoping for. There is a big climatic battle of the “titans,” featuring the granddaddy of them all and what looks like a name-brand kaiju who also co-starred in Legendary’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters. It also features a truly massive monster cameo.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, on Apple TV+

The agents of Monarch, the super-secret kaiju-response agency, are the world’s worst Men in Black. In their defense, it is hard to keep a Godzilla rampage under wraps. Now that the kaiju is out of the bag, the agency is internally debating its role post-G-Day (as seen in the 2014 American-produced Godzilla). Two step-siblings stumble across the agency right when the kaiju are stirring in co-creators Chris Black & Matt Fraction’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which premieres tomorrow on Apple TV+.

Technically, Godzilla levelled greater destruction on San Francisco than the current mayor and governor have so far, but give them time. Cate Randa barely survived G-Day, but her elementary school kids were not so fortunate. Although still traumatized, she agrees to visit Japan to attend to her recently deceased father’s affairs. However, instead of an empty commuter flat, she finds a second family, including the adult-aged (but not necessarily adult-behaving) Kentaro Randa.

Obviously, it is a super awkward first meeting. Nevertheless, she and her step-brother agree to clear out his office together, where they find a cache of secret Monarch files, which they decrypt with the help of Rentaro’s resentful not-quite ex, May. That trove of documents leads them to retired Col. Leland Shaw, who was there when Monarch was founded, along with their grandparents, Keiko and Bill Randa.

In flashbacks, we see young Shaw and the Randas (who aren’t the Randas yet) chasing after radioactive anomalies that turns out to be kaiju trails. Their research prompts the miliary to create what becomes Monarch. Even back then, Shaw was not always on the same page as his superiors. That is particularly true when the Randa step-siblings break him out of his maximum-security retirement home.

According to the timeline, post-G-Day Shaw would have to be in his 90’s, but Kurt Russell certainly does not look that old. Somewhat cleverly, Black, Fraction, and their co-writers make a regular bit out of characters telling him, dude, you can’t really be that old. Regardless, the paring of Russell and his son Wyatt as the 2010’s and 1950’s is not just a stunt. It is a genius stroke of casting. Obviously, the older Russell can grin and growl his way through any action scene, but the real news is how good Wyatt Russell is as the young Lieutenant Shaw.

Legacy of Monsters shifts so frequently between timelines, some viewers might experience whiplash. Based on the first eight (out of ten) episodes provided for review, it is always easy to distinguish the respective eras, but they are not equally compelling. In addition to Russell the younger, Mari Yamamoto and Anders Holm are convincingly smart and conscientious as the Randa grandparents, thereby giving the 1950’s the clear advantage.

In contrast, the Randa grandkids and the mysterious May are abrasively whiny and annoying. It would be more pleasant to weather a kaiju attack than sit next to any of the three on a transcontinental flight. Aside from old man Russell and old man Godzilla, the most interesting character in the post-G-Day timeline is Tim, a geeky Monarch analyst seeking redemption in the field. Joe Tippett’s performance initially delivers laughs, but evolves in interesting ways.

The Quest: Welcome to America Jade Snow

Maybe the Old West wasn’t so different from our current times. Unions were just as violent back then and unchecked lawlessness could destroy a community quicker than anything. That is what brothers Morgan “Two Persons” Beaudine and Dr. Quentin Beaudine learn when they blow into a striking miners’ town. They were the lead characters of The Quest, a series that was like the lite beer version of The Searchers. Instead of their abducted sister, they find plenty of violence and prejudice in “Welcome to America Jade Snow,” which airs Sunday night on getTV.

As a child, Morgan lived in captivity with the Cheyenne, until the Army reunited him with his brother Quentin. Now into adulthood, they are searching for their still missing sister. Morgan retains an affinity for Native American culture, especially when it comes to his wardrobe and he is naturally more inclusive. In fact, we learn in this episode he was formerly in a relationship with a Chinese immigrant, rather unoriginally named “China,” with whom he now crosses paths with again.

She has since remarried and given birth to little Jade Snow. Unfortunately, her husband and the rest of the town’s Chinese population have been scapegoated by the striking union. Load-mouthed Jensen stokes their resentment, inciting the strikers to attack the Chinese laborers recruited by the Machiavellian mining magnate to replace to replace them. The decent Sheriff Bradley understands how this anarchy will rot the town’s character over the long run, but the city fathers don’t seem to care.

Back in 1976, The Quest died a quick death on network television. It was scheduled against Charlie’s Angels, so no boys between 13 and 21 were watching. Yet, given the pairing of Kurt Russell (who looks like he had Goldie Hawn’s hair back then) and Tim Matheson, it is a little surprising it hasn’t been revived in re-runs more.

Of course, this episode presents the Frontier in revisionist terms. The way it addresses tolerance and bigotry actually ages surprisingly well, whereas, its presentation of mob rioting suddenly looks uncomfortably timely. It is also bizarre to see George Lazenby, the former James Bond, listed as a guest star with absolutely no fanfare (seriously, there were even fewer Bonds back then, but he was one). He isn’t bad either, playing blokey Sydney, an Aussie immigrant, who tries to be a voice of reason among the strikers.

Bone Tomahawk: Kurt Russell Tracks Cannibals

Whatever you do, don’t call them Native Americans, or any less politically correct term. They are Troglodytes, an ancient secret race of cannibals so brutal, they have been disavowed by all Native Peoples. When they kidnap a cowboy’s wife, he will set off after them, in the tradition of The Searchers. However, he has no worries she might “go native,” because he is keenly aware of her place on the menu in S. Craig Zahler’s Bone Tomahawk (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

All the trouble starts when two knuckle-headed outlaws go traipsing through a Troglodyte burial ground. Eventually, the thuggish Buddy will make it to the upstanding town of Bright Hope, but his sidekick Purvis will not. However, Buddy’s suspicious behavior and general bad attitude will get him shot in the leg by Sheriff Franklin Hunt. Since they can’t just let that get infected, they send for the medically trained Samantha O’Dwyer. She had been enjoying a quiet evening at home, tending the broken leg of her cattle-driving husband Arthur.

Inconveniently, when morning comes, the sheriff discovers Ms. O’Dwyer has been abducted, along with the prisoner and his legit deputy. Leg or no leg, O’Dwyer is saddling up and giving chase. The duty-bound Hunt will ride with him, as will the roguish gambler and ladies’ man John Brooder, who nurses a pathological hatred of Native tribes. Old Chicory will also tag along. The old timer Hunt indulgently dubbed his “back-up deputy” might not inspire a lot of confidence, but he did not survive the Civil War and years on the frontier because he wasn’t resourceful.

It is absolutely fascinating to watch all the hoops Tomahawk jumps through to make it okay for a cowboy to shoot a sort of, but not really Native American. (Does this mean the Toledo Troglodytes are now going to have to change their name too?) Regardless, those Trogs sure are hard to kill, but the manly cast is mostly up for the task, starting with the eternally cool Kurt Russell, who is as grizzled and hardnosed as ever as Sheriff Hunt. It is too bad Hollywood doesn’t make westerns as regularly as they used to, because the Hateful Eight co-star is a natural for the genre, just like his father Bing.

Frankly, most of the film’s best scenes play out between Hunt and Chicory, played by the ever-reliable Richard Jenkins as a Gabby Hayes figure, but with dignity and common sense. He invests the Back-up Deputy with so much tragic heft, he arguably takes ownership of the film. In contrast, Patrick Wilson’s O’Dwyer is basically a wet noodle with a gimpy leg. However, as Brooder, the heroic anti-hero, Matthew Fox absolutely gorges on the Paramount Ranch scenery.

With a running time of one hundred thirty minutes (seriously, its over two hours), Tomahawk takes too dang long to get from Bright Hope to the Troglodyte lair. Still, it is loaded with cool bits of business, starting with Roger Corman repertory player Sid Haig doing his thing as Buddy. The film’s respect for O’Dwyer’s abiding Christian faith is also unexpectedly refreshing, especially since Wilson played the abusive Evangelical in the laughably stilted atheist outreach film, The Ledge. Despite some pacing issues, Bone Tomahawk is still an entertaining excursion into weird west terrain. Recommended for Kurt Russell fans and Deadlands players, Bone Tomahawk opens this Friday (10/23) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

Tribeca ’14: The Battered Bastards of Baseball

They were like an adult version of the Bad News Bears. The Portland Mavericks were the last independent team to compete in Major League Baseball’s minor league system. Instead of simply developing prospects for big league affiliates, the Mavericks played to win. They also did their best to put on a show for the fans. Nearly thirty-seven years after their final game the Mavericks will entertain audiences once again when Chapman & Maclain Way’s documentary The Battered Bastards of Baseball screens at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.

Bing Russell was a working actor still probably best known as Deputy Clem on Bonanza, but baseball was his first love. About the time the Cartwrights were finally canceled, Portland’s AAA farm club left the city for Spokane. To the bemusement of just about everyone, Russell decided to launch an independent Single-A club and announced open tryouts to fill out his roster. The sports establishment laughed, but a whole lot of people showed up. However, Russell was able to recruit one veteran minor leaguer: his son Kurt Russell, a.k.a. Snake Plissken. Oddly enough, the makeshift Mavericks starting winning—and drawing. Of course, that rather embarrassed the baseball establishment.

Years later, Russell still chuckles at his father’s showmanship. In fact, Battered is one of the rare documentaries with no dirty family linen to air. Clearly, he thinks old man Bing was a cool cat and has the rest of us convinced in about thirty seconds. Without question, the senior Russell set the tone for the Mavericks, who consistently lived up to their names.

Yes, Battered is a sports doc, but it is also a show biz story, a family history, and a great big slice of Americana. Of special interest to cineastes, Oscar nominated director Todd Field also extensively reminisces throughout the film about his experiences as the Mavericks’ batboy. It is about rooting for the underdogs and defying the old boys’ network. Most importantly, Battered is just more fun than an Elvis bobble-head.

The Ways were blessed with a great story that is already being talked about as a potential narrative feature, but they make some shrewd presentation choices throughout the film. There are the odd poignant moments in Battered, but they generally revel in the madcap spirit of the team. Few docs ever fly by at such a breezy gallop. Very highly recommended for fans of baseball, either Russell, and defiantly idiosyncratic entrepreneurship, The Battered Bastards of Baseball screens this Wednesday (4/23) and Saturday (4/26) during the Tribeca Film Festival.