REVIEW: Moon Knight

Marvel hero Moon Knight has a very interesting history and complex character, and we were looking forward to, among other things, the real action scenes. That's why we're sorry that the Disney + streaming series of the same name didn't live up to its potential.

At the beginning of the story, we meet an employee of the Steven Grant Museum (Oscar Isaac). However, we soon find out that Steven is not alone in his head. A second personality named Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac) lives there too. As part of the series, we find out which personality is the main one and which is the "secondary".

Marc's wife Layla (May Calamawy) and the villain Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) also get involved. Layla was a very successful part of the series. However, the audience of the series Rama, in which the actress performs, was not surprised, as May Calamawy has proved her great talent in that show.

Actor Ethan Hawke was unlucky that he played only another indistinct Marvel villain, namely a murderous anarchist without deeper motivations. He was interesting at the beginning, but after two episodes, his character had nothing new to offer the viewer. The best actor in the series is without a doubt Oscar Isaac. He played two different characters: the Englishman Steven Grant with a British accent and the American Marc Spector. Isaac had a difficult task when he had to "switch" between them, because they are two very different characters and personalities.

In some scenes, we watch these two personalities alternate in one body, so the actor had to change not only his accent, but also his body movement, storytelling style, facial expressions and a number of other expressions of emotions to sufficiently separate the characters. As spectators, we weren't confused for a second, when it came to which character is curren the body. Oscar Isaac has been excellent in the series all along, and without him, Moon Knight wouldn't be worth much.

Moon Knight is an unconventional Marvel feature. It has nothing to do with the other Avengers or the Marvel Universe as such. If we did not know that this is a story taking place in this world, there would be no indication. As a result, the creators were able to tell the original story without having to think about following up with other films and series.

At the heart of the story is a mentally ill person with a personality disorder. At the end of the series, we learned what was really behind it, and it was quite a depressing and unpleasant revelation. Too bad it's a Marvel "for teenagers". The quality of the series would be good if the story was even "darker", but it's still a step in the right direction.

Moon Knight is a successful character study of a mentally unstable man, who wears a superhero costume and serves as a "messenger" (avatar) for the Egyptian moon god named Konshu. This gives him the strength that makes any ordinary mortal inferior to Moon Knight.

Moon Knight is in the same situation as the WandaVision series - we would welcome at least one more episode. The creators failed to close the story in the final episode. It seems too rushed, leaving several storylines open.

One of the positives of the series is its setting in the Egyptian environment, it is a pity that the series did not lean towards a more horror atmosphere, which would suit it very well. On the contrary, it didn't do it any good that the creators jumped between the serious and comedic style of the characters' behavior and the story. They just wasted space and time which could have been used to tell the story more comprehensively.

Marvel can work with its heroes and its universe in a way that makes the viewer feel that he can't wait for the next part. The main (positive) characters are sympathetic, the visual effects are always at least decent and in some scenes very successful.

It's a pity that the action scenes weren't better, because the comic book brutality of this character gave the creators the space to make them much more engaging. We also have a negative perception of boring villains and constant changes in the tone and atmosphere of the series. Last but not least, we were annoyed by the fact, that the series did not seem to be finished, and even if the second season was announced, we were still missing something "more" in terms of the first one.

The creators, however, can be praised for an interesting and surprising story about Marc Spector and his personalities, treatment of which was extremely successful. Costume designers and actors also deserve an applause. We were surprised at how invested we were in the main character's mental illness.

None of this would have worked without the fantastic Oscar Isaac, thanks to whom, you can enjoy even the ordinary dialogues. Comics fans were certainly pleased with the credible treatment of the character of the god Konshu or the original treatment of the character Mr. Knight and other character. Straying from the comics meant, that not even super-fans knew in advance, what was going to happen.