Much has been made of Moon Knight's supposed maturity; it's age-restricted on Disney+, and Marvel boss Kevin Feige has described the violence as "brutal" and a "tonal shift" for the MCU.
While it maybe be true that Moon Knight is a little more gruesome that the rest of the MCU catalogue (minus the Defenders Saga, if that counts), with knife fights and gun violence that draw blood and have splattery sound effects, its overall impression is not one of grittiness. Rather, this latest series combines the ancient mythology of the Thor films with the campy tomb-hunting of the Mummy franchise, resulting a series that's often fun but with a bit of a muddled tone.
The series begins with Oscar Isaac as Steven Grant, a neurotic Brit with an apparent sleep disorder that makes him wake up in strange places, not knowing how he got there. Oscar's English accent is distracting and totally unconvincing (viewers who grew up with English parents might be reminded of the childlike blithering of Frank Spencer from '70s sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), but maybe the inept accent was actually intentional: it turns out that Steven has a dissociative identity disorder, and he's also an American named Marc Spector. This confident, aggressive side of his personality acts as an earthly enforcer for the vengeful Egyptian god Khonshu, who punishes evildoers.
The first couple of episodes combine the action-adventure amnesia of The Bourne Identity with the multiple personality zaniness of Me, Myself & Irene. There's even a bit of Venom in the cartoonish way Spector/Grant ends up arguing with voices in his own head.
It's quite compelling in its over-the-top silliness — like when Grant is fleeing from the sinister cult leader Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) and, rather than use composer Hesham Nazih's dark and dramatic score, principal director Mohamed Diab needle-drops Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go."
In the four episodes made available to critics (out of a total six), the focus largely falls on a plot involving feuding Egyptian gods and the questionable motives of their modern-day avatars. The problem is, with the action is largely handled by the implausible Grant and the under-developed Jacobs, there's not a strong character to the keep the fanciful plot grounded in something relatable. Layla (May Calamawy) isn't particularly fleshed out as Jacobs' estranged wife, and it's not clear why she's sticking around through all of the danger. Hawke is wonderfully sinister as a conduit for the rival god Ammit; he's evil in a morally ambiguous sort of way, and his charismatic manipulativeness makes him fully convincing as a ruthless cult leader.
The fourth episode ends with an abrupt tonal shift, suggesting we might finally be about to get some insight into these flat characters. While my interest waned a little over the course of third episode, the end of the fourth had me fully invested and eager for its arrival on Disney+. Moon Knight certainly isn't perfect, but with retro action-adventure silliness combined with something a little more twisted, it's building up to an intriguing conclusion.
(Disney)While it maybe be true that Moon Knight is a little more gruesome that the rest of the MCU catalogue (minus the Defenders Saga, if that counts), with knife fights and gun violence that draw blood and have splattery sound effects, its overall impression is not one of grittiness. Rather, this latest series combines the ancient mythology of the Thor films with the campy tomb-hunting of the Mummy franchise, resulting a series that's often fun but with a bit of a muddled tone.
The series begins with Oscar Isaac as Steven Grant, a neurotic Brit with an apparent sleep disorder that makes him wake up in strange places, not knowing how he got there. Oscar's English accent is distracting and totally unconvincing (viewers who grew up with English parents might be reminded of the childlike blithering of Frank Spencer from '70s sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), but maybe the inept accent was actually intentional: it turns out that Steven has a dissociative identity disorder, and he's also an American named Marc Spector. This confident, aggressive side of his personality acts as an earthly enforcer for the vengeful Egyptian god Khonshu, who punishes evildoers.
The first couple of episodes combine the action-adventure amnesia of The Bourne Identity with the multiple personality zaniness of Me, Myself & Irene. There's even a bit of Venom in the cartoonish way Spector/Grant ends up arguing with voices in his own head.
It's quite compelling in its over-the-top silliness — like when Grant is fleeing from the sinister cult leader Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) and, rather than use composer Hesham Nazih's dark and dramatic score, principal director Mohamed Diab needle-drops Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go."
In the four episodes made available to critics (out of a total six), the focus largely falls on a plot involving feuding Egyptian gods and the questionable motives of their modern-day avatars. The problem is, with the action is largely handled by the implausible Grant and the under-developed Jacobs, there's not a strong character to the keep the fanciful plot grounded in something relatable. Layla (May Calamawy) isn't particularly fleshed out as Jacobs' estranged wife, and it's not clear why she's sticking around through all of the danger. Hawke is wonderfully sinister as a conduit for the rival god Ammit; he's evil in a morally ambiguous sort of way, and his charismatic manipulativeness makes him fully convincing as a ruthless cult leader.
The fourth episode ends with an abrupt tonal shift, suggesting we might finally be about to get some insight into these flat characters. While my interest waned a little over the course of third episode, the end of the fourth had me fully invested and eager for its arrival on Disney+. Moon Knight certainly isn't perfect, but with retro action-adventure silliness combined with something a little more twisted, it's building up to an intriguing conclusion.