Moon Knight Review – A Refreshing Standalone Story?
“A fun new page to turn to in the MCU’s ongoing world building.”
“Who is Moon Knight?” is something a lot of MCU fans will have been Googling a few years back when it was announced this dark Marvel anti-hero would be getting his own solo show courtesy of Disney+. Well, fans will now be overly familiar with who and what this individual is if they’ve tuned in for each episode.
Moon Knight follows mercenary Marc Spector (Star Wars‘ Oscar Isaacs) and his alternate personality from dissociative identity disorder, gift shop worker Steven Grant, as they cope with sharing a body whilst serving the Egyptian god Khonshu as his heroic eyes and ears of justice. As the adventure unfolds over the six-episode arc, Spector and Grant teams up with the former’s wife, Layla El-Faouly (Ramy‘s May El Calamawy), as they take on Arthur Harrow (The Northman’s Ethan Hawke), a cult leader who is associated with the goddess Ammit.
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To start off with, Isaacs does a very impressive job of switching between Spector and Grant. There’s one particular moment when you watch him switch identities right in front of your eyes, and it’s cool to see. As great as it is seeing the Moon Knight identity in live-action, it’s the back an forth between Marc and Steven that is the main highlight.
We of course also have our supporting cast. Calamawy’s Layla does a perfect job of breaking the usual love interest stereotypes. Something Marvel has succeeded with very well over the years. She’s a character that stands strong by herself and carries through with her own feelings and beliefs. This is a character I hope we see more of in a possible Season 2 or just in and around the MCU. Then there’s Ethan Hawke’s Harrow. The background and cult leader vibe is a nice route to follow, but apart from that we aren’t really overly gripped by this villain. Hawke is a terrific actor, and it feels as if he isn’t given the character he deserves. Though Harrow should appear quite content and soft spoke given his role, it wouldn’t hurt for him to have some more intriguing moments.
When it comes to the plot, we’re taken on a globe-trotting adventure that feels somewhat in the same ilk as, say, an Indiana Jones outing. Yet again, Kevin Feige and the guys at Marvel show that the MCU has no genre that it can’t blend into. This is a show that if you look at your phone now and again, chances are you’ll be lost. If you pay attention and keep hold of all the drip fed information and identity swapping, you’re in for a fun ride. As a whole, the story takes you away from the MCU whilst still existing within it. Which is refreshing to say the least. It’s a nice reality check that not everything in this universe needs to allude to each other. There can be goings on that don’t relate to The Avengers or The Blip for instance. There’s the odd mention of things for eagle eyed fans, but nothing as vocal as we’re used to.
The biggest excitement of the story is the woven identity swapping. The way in which we follow this real breaks from normality and has you trying to piece things together. We even have some added intrigue in some activity that doesn’t come from Marc OR Steven.
The downfalls of the plot? Well, there’s a few, and it’s mainly down to the amount of episodes we get. Some episodes could be quite slow, and some relied too heavily on action sequences that somehow felt boring. This series just needed to lean in on it’s strengths i.e. the Spector/Grant relationship and run with it. Because of this, episodes 1 and 5 standout as the best from the series, thanks to exploring that relationship and weaving in some kick ass moments that served the plot well. With more episodes, we could have expanded everything, then maybe those scenes in the tomb would have felt more exciting.
There’s also the fact that this isn’t a character most are familiar with. 6 episodes doesn’t give enough groundwork to layout the character’s backstory, plus relationships with supporting characters, whilst then advancing the plot constantly. A lot is crammed in here, so some action beats can’t be enjoyed because you’re taking a breather from details you took in in the last scene. Then there is the ending. As much as the main bulk of the plot is tied up, the story just stops dead, and we’re left somewhat underwhelmed. If not for the post credits scene, it would feel like an all out let down.
Our team of directors for the show did a really good job of working in conjunction together. The main name in this regard is Mohamed Diab, who directed 4 out of the 6 and so was on the journey with us most of the time. Diab got to also deal with the more fun episodes of the show and did a good job of making them land well overall. We can only hope that he remains involved if there is a second run. We also can’t forget our head writer and executive producer, Jeremy Slater. Slater has had experience with the superhero genre, having been involved in the ill-fated Fantastic Four from 2015, and also Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy. Definitely with the latter, he’s accustom to the stranger concepts of the comic book works, which makes him a perfect fit for what this show offers.
In essence, with Moon Knight, it’s fun to have a standalone MCU series that can easily be by itself or entwine with the rest of the universe. It is it’s own chiselled action of Marvel’s world that is particularly dark than usual and deals with real life issues in a very delicate and effective way. Real issues is something Marvel is accustomed to, and this is another example of how it can be handled so well even in a comic book universe.
All in all, this is a fun new page to turn to in the MCU’s ongoing world building. This is a character we want to follow further, but we just need some changes in the structure of it if we’re going to be faithful to a second season. Give us a more dynamic and exciting villain and (though this probably won’t happen) give us a WandaVision and play with more than 6 episodes.
To total up, we’re giving this series a 7.1/10.
Moon Knight is currently streaming on Disney+.