I may be a fan of Marvel Comics, but I only heard of a series called Moon Knight only once thanks to an MCU mini-series advertised on Disney Plus. While each MCU Disney Plus show varied in success from what I’ve experienced, I had yet to learn what to expect with the premise that Moon Knight seemed to advertise. In concept, it should be rather interesting as it will take a more spiritual and mystical approach similar to Doctor Strange but with new characters and settings. Is this another win for the creators at Marvel Studios? Or was there a reason this Marvel property should not have been translated on the small screen?
The series follows Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac), he works at a British museum in London and dreams of being a tour guide due to his extensive knowlege of Ancient Egypt. However when Steven has a dream about a man named Arthur Hallow (Ethan Hawke) leading a cult. He starts to find out about his split personality named Marc Spector and is then found by Layla (May Calamawy) who tells him about his destiny, leading him out of his comfort zone and into Egypt where Arthur plans to unleash something dangerous upon the world. Can Steven and his split personality Marc work together as one to save the world from unknown dangers?
I don’t know much about the Moon Knight comics themselves. Judging by this series, it seems rather dull and even confusingly complicated. The adventure lacks consistency and there are rarely moments that pick up the pace and create exicment within the narrative. This is the same problem I have with Marvel’s Eternals, just because you make somthing complex and serious doesn’t automatically mean your guaranteed to work cause you still need interesting character arcs and setpieces. I’m all for stories, especailly superhero stories that are complex and deep (Just take a look at Batman for example). Unfourntaly, there is not enough time in this episodic adventure to really appercaite the world building and character interactions because both are very rushed. Worst of all, for a series called Moon Knight, there is barely a lot of time you will get to experience the main character taking the persona of Moon Knight. Unless if you count the times when our “hero” is interacting with a split personality who is not even in costume. To the series’s credit, The last two episodes do show some promise when we enter a new world and come across weird mystical characters, but even that can’t save this series, as they are short lived and the narrative cuts back to the same dull uninteresting plot devices and characters that are undeveloped and too complex for their own good. I can understand why this series would appeal to some audiences, but as for me, this is making me long for the days of Marvel being comical and fun.
I don’t blame the actors for their character performances and sometimes they can turn in some interesting dialogue and story arcs, but don’t expect them to be as memorable as Iron Man or Captain America. Oscar Isaac plays our main hero Steven, and he may just be the best character in the entire show as the material he has to work with is very interesting. Some of his best acting comes from him interacting off of his own split personalities which can create tension and engagement. Sadly though it feels like Isaac’s role in the movie is the only one that is interesting as the rest of the characters either appear to give exposition or fight alongside our hero. Even with some of the mystical characters having cool deep or squeaky high pitched voices. Their actions are very minimal and barely add to the dullness of the narrative. Being serious and complex can have its advantages but it seems these characters with the exception of Moon Knight’s could use some tuning up.
The MCU is known for having big spectacle visuals that aid their superhero stories. Even though this series has very minimal spectacle, I’ll say that when the series becomes more superhero oriented, the visuals are fantastic, but when it’s just a typical drama, it becomes very mundane. Sometimes the visuals can look wonderful especially when it comes to seeing Moon Knight in his actual costume or visiting the psychiatric hospital. Other times the visuals look very typical and are already visuals Marvel has used many times in other superior movies they have made. While it is neat to visit Egypt and see the wondrous visuals you’d expect to find there, there is, in my opinion, too many scenes of just normal cinemtogrpy and less superhero action. I appreciate this film to not have too many distracting CGI effects especially in the earlier episodes but those effects would be more than welcome if the series was attempting to be more visually interesting than it really is.
Since the Music score is Egyptian influenced, it only made sense to bring in a composer who was born and raised in Eygpt. Enter Hesham Nazih, a composer who does his hardest to bring an egyptian flare to a typical Marvel music score. His score works very well with any scene its in and it only gets better when the real action of the movie begins to take form. Marvel made the right choice when choosing a composer for this series and Nazih’s music in some cases somewhat saves this series from being a total dud.
It’s still unclear how they will be able to fit Moon Knight fit in with the rest of the MCU’s best characters. This was an ambitious experiment like I always would expect from the MCU, but these are characters and stories that were just too complicated and lacking any personality. I know there are a lot of people who liked this series and I’m glad it has found an audience. As for me I would just rather stick to watching WandaVision or Loki again as there world-building and character arcs are much better in my opinion. This is far from the worst thing Marvel has made but I wish it could have had more personality and comicalness like their best work.
(Final Grade: C+)