Another year, Another batch of Marvel Shows and Moon Knight is the first to arise onto Disney+.
Moon Knight is set in the MCU in the post-blip era, where we meet a strange man named Steven (Oscar Isaac)who is, whilst a very self-composed, quirky guy that would rather keep to himself, he has an absolute fascination with the Egyptian culture and can’t help but go on a deep dive through history of it whilst he works at the museum. Except he doesn’t quite work there as a tour guide, he just works at the gift shop. However, after experiencing blackouts and memories of another life along with finding evidence of that other identity living in his home, he discovers that he has a dissociative identity disorder and happens to share the body with a mercenary named Marc Spector. But as they both run into some mysterious enemies, Steven/Marc, must find a way to deal with their complex identities to fight their way through to discovering a deadly mystery amongst the mighty gods of Egypt.
If anything, this opening episode has given us a grand opening into the expositional side of the two identities of Steven and Marc as we try to understand the world that they’re building in the show.
But this show manages to keep it quite nicely into the perspective of Steven in this first episode as we try to navigate through the confusion that he’s experiencing as he can feel there’s something ominous lurking within or around him as he tries to get by day by day. Its set-up has given us the chance to really dig in on who Steven is as a person and has essentially built a protagonist who has meaning with what he does. As we discover what sort of thing he’s really dealing with whilst he seems like the odd, quirky guy who lacks confidence in everything he does, once he’s solved the problem to the mass amount of confusion and mysterious experiences he has when he’s asleep, he manages to regain confidence in himself and gives the ability for his other identity take over him.
The show delivers upon that even more with these great themes within that beholds a story of darkness and brutality amongst what’s about to come throughout the show. But it happens to have this lacking tonal issue in how it delivers those themes as it wants to go all the way and is reaching for it within the episode, yet it keeps falling into the trap of the typical Marvel wisecracking jokes that feel forced upon to not necessarily laugh, but chuckle to keep you entertained whilst it tries to convey a serious story beat. It has never blended in with a lot of the previous MCU shows, and it doesn’t feel like it works this time, making it a little bit tedious when watching it. However, apart from finding the tone that it wants to be.
Oscar Isaac’s performance has been a phenomenal one for sure. He provides a significant distinction between Steven and Marc that works well between the two. The bodied performance of having someone else control him feels powerful and expressive on screen. Additionally, with the bit of screen time that he’s had so far in this episode, Ethan Hawke has already developed a presence amongst his character and has, if anything, left an intriguing introduction to what is to come in later episodes.
From eloquent performances to minor tonal delivery, it happens to be a well-developed beginning to what is set to be a stunning set-up of action and adventure that’s to come in later episodes. Moon Knight has put in motion an entertaining first episode that doesn’t let you down in having a fun time with the beginnings of a new character in the MCU.
