Poor Steven. He longs to be a tour guide in the Egyptian section of the London museum where he works, but his merciless boss has him relegated to gift shop inventory. He can’t seem to get his love life sorted, and all of his calls to his mum go to voicemail. His goldfish Gus, the one-fin wonder, suddenly has two fins. On top of it all, Steven has to chain himself to his bed every night or else he wakes up God-knows-where with strange voices in his head. But when he wakes up in a small Bavarian town that is under the influence of cult leader Arthur Harrow, Steven finds himself hurdling down a path he can’t seem to wrap his head around–he might be the mysterious Egyptian avatar known as Moon Knight.
To say I’ve been looking forward to this show would be an understatement. Moon Knight is one of my favorite comic characters, so when I heard Disney+ officially added MK to the MCU lineup, I was–wait for it–over the moon. And a little bit scared. There’s always that chance that it could suck. I approached the debut episode of Moon Knight with excitement and trepidation.
And I’m happy to report that Moon Knight does not suck. There are so many good tidbits just in this first episode that will have eagle-eyed Easter egg hunters theorizing all the theories. Was that “DuChamp” we saw in Marc’s missed calls log? Given the foe introduced by Ethan Hawke’s Arthur Harrow, what significance is there in Steven signing off his voicemails to his mom with, “laters, gators”? Is the gold statue man Crawley (yes)? And could that small Bavarian locale be Latveria?
But the heartbeat of a show is not its Easter eggs. Oscar Isaac brilliantly fits into the role and convincingly pulls off the neurotic and desperate Steven Grant. From the get-go, he gives us a sympathetic character with a ton of baggage that none of us would wish on our worst enemy. Ethan Hawke’s performance is the right amount of creepy while acting as if he is the only one from whom Steven can get the answers to what is plaguing him. The pacing of the show also felt unlike anything the MCU has done before–and that opening scene set a haunting tone that I’m not sure I can shake from my nightmares. The show brims with a complex mix of charm, heartbreak, and horror.
With this first episode officially in the books, I anticipate and wonder about so many things. Since we’re introduced to Steven Grant first, it makes me wonder how we’re meant to receive Marc Spector–the actual alter ego of Moon Knight–and his sordid past. I’m also curious to see how the growing roster of deities in the MCU will mesh together; how do gods like Thor and Loki interact with beings like Khonshu and Ammit? And, even though it’s been said that Moon Knight will act more as a stand-alone without other MCU references (since director Mohamed Diab says the show is good enough not to need any, which I kind of love), I still wonder how the Fist of Khonshu will still manage to fit within Kevin Feige’s ever-growing universe.
Regardless, the debut episode of Moon Knight does so much at once: Gives us a brand new character in a brilliant way, introduces new foes and new stakes, and, very importantly, sheds any notion that Moon Knight is Marvel’s version of a DC comic character who also does his vigilantism by night. If this first episode is an indication of how the series will be overall, I would say my Moon Knight appetite phase is waxing.
Credits
- Starring: Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke, F. Murray Abraham, Lucy Thackeray
- Directors: Mohamed Diab, Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
- Writer: Jeremy Slater
- Characters: Doug Moench, Don Perlin
- Producers: Kevin Feige, Grant Curtis, Victoria Alonso, Mohamed Diab, Oscar Isaac
Credits (cont)
- Score: Hesham Nazih
- Cinematography: Gregory Middleton
- Studio: Marvel Studios
- Streaming: Disney+
4 thoughts on “[REVIEW] SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF ‘MOON KNIGHT’”