Moon Knight
Moon Knight is a little bit of an obscure Marvel character that has risen to prominence in the comics over the past decade, so it wasn't a surprise when it was announced that he would be getting his own Disney Plus series. Moon Knight is sort of like Marvel's answer to Batman. If instead of being a trouble billionaire, Batman was a mercenary with multiple personalities. I think with such a complicated character a six episode series serves this character better than a two hour movie. Let's get into the first two episodes.
"The Goldfish Problem"
Arthur Harrow: "Consider this: Had Ammit been free, she would have prevented Hitler and the destruction he wrought. Nero, the Armenian genocide, Pol Pot."
Steven Grant: "Not nice people."
Arthur Harrow: "But she was betrayed."
Steven Grant: "Was she?"
Arthur Harrow: "By indolent fellow gods. By even her own avatar."
Steven Grant: "Avatars. Blue people. Love that film."
Steven Grant has a one finned goldfish. He works in a gift shop in a museum. On the surface, he seems like your run-of-the-mill sad sack, but Steven Grant has problems. He's losing time. He's trying to stay awake. Things take a particularly scary turn when he wakes up in a tiny village in the Alps holding a scarab. There he meets a man named Arthur Harrow who is trying to bring back the Egyptian goddess Ammit. Steven escapes Harrow but he follows him to London. What does this man want? What's the deal with this scarab? And who is Marc Spector?
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| I'd like to return this goldfish. |
When they would announce a new Marvel show or series with a relatively obscure character, I'd say that I couldn't believe it! Well, I really need to stop saying that because it kind of feels like at some point every major or minor Marvel character is going get a part in the MCU at some point or another. I think "Moon Knight" is the perfect candidate for an MCU television series. Marc Spector has a lot going on and being able to explore that over six hours rather than just two is great. This is also the first live action series that doesn't draw from an already existing MCU property.
"The Goldfish Problem" is an interesting pilot because it doesn't give you all the facts right away. If you weren't super familiar with the character you might be surprised to see Steven Grant, a nebbish, British sad sack who works in a museum gift shop but really wants to be a tour guide. There is something about Steven Grant though. He wears an ankle restraint to bed. He has a circle of sand around his bed. He's taped his doorframe. He's made a date at a steak restaurant with an attractive co-worker that he doesn't remember making. As ordinary as Steven Grant seems, extraordinary things are happening to him, but he doesn't remember any of them.
Oscar Isaac was a great choice to play this character. Even when Steven Grant is failing at everything, Isaac injects him with this charm and likability. You're never not rooting for Steven Grant. Isaac throws himself into the role. The physicality. Whether he's running through the Alps, driving a cupcake van around treacherous mountain paths or sliding on the marble floors of the museum, Isaac is completely committed to everything that the script asks of him.
I am a fan of things that sort of play their cards close to the vest. Like I said, this episode doesn't spell out everything that is happening. It sort of doles out information piecemeal. It puts you in the shoes of Steven. You learn things as he does. I had a leg up because I was familiar with the character and I knew where all of this is heading so that could have impacted my enjoyment of this first episode. You need to be off-kilter. I like that the episode makes the decision not to spoon feed you. I love the flashes of Khonshu that we see throughout the episode. The horror elements that they sprinkle in. It all really works.
It gives you glimpses of everything. We meet the series villain, Arthur Harrow, played by Ethan Hawke. The episode opens with him smashing a glass and sprinkling it in side his sandal. Steven sees him in the village, judging people in the name of the Egyptian goddess Ammit per a scale tattoo on his arm. If you are deemed worthy, you live, but if Ammit deems you evil, even if that evil has yet to be committed, you are killed. Hawke is really great in his limited screen time. His low even voice that can shift from benevolence to menace in an instant.
This being a Marvel property you best believe that there is going to be action, but the action in this episode is much different than the action in a lot of the other Marvel series and movies. It starts when Steven wakes up in the Alps with his jaw dislocated which while not like as graphic as we see in other things it's a lot for Marvel. Throughout this sequence we see Steven glitching and when he is back to himself he is usually surrounded by dead bodies. This leads to Steven stealing a cupcake truck and a really entertaining chase sequence featuring more black outs, Steven throwing a gun, smashing cupcakes in thugs faces and a logging truck. I love this. It's a nice change of pace and I am always appreciative of Marvel doing something different.
If I have one minor gripe, it's that I wish we saw more Moon Knight. I love the glimpses at the end, but I want more.
Grade: A-
"Summon the Suit"
Marc Spector: "Oy, Steven, what the hell are we wearing?"
Steven Grant: "I don't know. She said I needed a suit."
Marc Spector: "Yeah, the ceremonial armor from Khonshu's temple, not psycho Colonel Sanders."
After being chased by a jackal monster, giving up possession of his body to Marc Spector and wearing a suit to kill said jackal, Steven Grant's life continues to spiral. He is fired from the museum since there is nothing on the security cam of the jackal creature. He learns that he shares his body with a mercenary named Marc Spector who is the avatar of an Egyptian moon god and is married. Arthur Harrow continues to pursue Steven to get the scarab that will lead him to the tomb of Ammit. What ensues is a struggle between Marc and Steven for control of the body. Who will come out on top?
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| What a beautiful decoration. |
I feel like we have to start this off by talking about Layla El-Fouli played by May Calamawy. We heard Layla in the previous episode when Steven finds Marc's burner phone in the hole in his wall. We meet her in the flesh this episode and she is fantastic, definitely the highlight of the episode for me. Her interactions with Isaac as Steven are great. They have a real natural chemistry. Layla seems to acclimated quickly to what is going on with the man she thinks is Marc Spector. She's fearless. she's take charge. But she's also able to try to help and console March when they are fleeing from Harrow's goons including a new jackal creature to replace the one that Moon Knight killed in the previous episode. When Layla is telling Steven to summon the suit and he's freaking out, she immediately changes tactics and is softer with him. It all really works.
There is a lot of information dumping happening in this episode. The first half is Steven dealing with the fallout from what happened in the previous episode. He has JB, the museum security guard, look through the footage and all it shows is a terrified Steven running through the museum with nothing chasing him. Steven is let go from the museum with a a suggestion of maybe seeking mental help, which is probably not the worst advice he could have gotten at this point.
This episode has a couple of larger exposition dumps. The one in the first half is a little more palatable as Steven learns more about Marc Spector, the man who is sharing his body. It turns out Marc has the scarab from the premiere. He finds a storage unit that has a lot of Marc's effects and he has one of many mirror conversations with Marc there. Steven threatens to go to the authorities with all this but he's threatened by Khonshu.
I think what makes this more enjoyable than the scenes with Harrow is because there is action and movement threaded throughout. Steven confronts Khonshu. He's picked up by Layla. The "police officers" show up at his flat and take him to Harrow. The information dump with Harrow and Steven is just a lot of walking and talking or sitting and talking while eating lentil soup.
We learn a bit more about Harrow and his followers and it's not reinventing the wheels when it comes to organizations that worship sketchy ancient deities. Harrow and his people believe that Ammit can cleanse the world of evil, even if it the evil hasn't been done yet. Steven points out that murdering children for things that may or may not happen yet is not great and he's not really down for that. Harrow wants the scarab because it will lead him to Ammit's tomb. He also tells Steven that Marc Spector brutally killed a group of archeologists on a dig, but methinks there might be more to that story.
It's after this that things pick up and we got some slam bam action and our first extended look at not one, but two versions of Moon Knight. When Steven summons the suit without giving Marc control of his body, we get Mr. Knight, who wears a snazzy white suit with his Moon Knight mask. I like the comedic elements that are interlaced throughout this episode between Marc and Steven and a lot of that comes from this moment.
Mr. Knight is more of a brawler and bare knuckle fights the jackal even though to Layla and the onlookers on the street it just looks like he is fighting air and throwing himself around. I am a sucker from fights against invisible enemies so I really enjoyed all of this. I kind of prefer the sequence when Steven surrenders to Marc and we get our first real look at the classic Moon Knight. I love the bandaged look of the costume and how Moon Knight's moon shaped boomerangs are stored in the moon symbol on his chest. They way that Moon Knight moves is very fluid and I love seeing his cape flow and his silhouette against the actual moon. He is much more efficient and brutally impales the jackal on the spire of a nearby building.
Harrow gets a way with the scarab and Steven agrees to give Marc control of the body to pursue him which is good because Khonshu is threatening to make Layla his avatar against her will if Marc fails. The episode ends with a tortured looking Marc in Egypt.
Grade: B
Next up, we officially meet Marc Spector out of the mirror, we discover Ammit's tomb and then things get real weird.
What do you all think of "Moon Knight" so far? Are you engaged? Are you meh? Let me know in the comments.
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