Given my episode play by play, it is painfully clear to anyone that I despised this show. This was nowhere near the hallmark that Marvel tries to hold itself to. It was dull, and pandering to the ‘woke’ and ‘diverse’ crowd. It was far too cowardly to try and tell a meaningful story. Instead it relied on tired old tropes, and hoping that people’s minds have forgotten previous movies. It tried to rely on big names in acting to draw in viewers. Oscar Isaac is the star of the show, and his acting chops put everyone to shame. Ethan Hawke was clearly just there to be remembered in posterity that he was in a Marvel production.
The story, and credits of each episode, excruciatingly teased viewers with a third persona but refused, adamantly, to show it until the very end. Until the last 30 seconds. Instead it tried its hardest to focus on just two personas of Moon Knight: Marc Spector and Steven Grant. Even then, they took the coward’s way out and switched comic Steven Grant for a new version. Perhaps they feared the comparisons to Batman, or any other rich superhero. As a result, everything suffered. Even the fight scenes were paltry, and anytime something cool could have happened, they turned it into a blackout scene. Like when Game of Thrones had to save money, and they showed the after-effects of a battle. I know Marvel has the money to spare, so this was a creative cop-out.
There were far too many writing bumbles that disconnected the viewer from immersion. Such as Steven’s inability to look at the time despite suffering life-long blackouts, to how Marc had a brother, or using mummification as a way to try and laughably introduce horror into the MCU. Then there’s manipulating the entire sky and not having every single superhero on the planet at high alert. Or killing countless disciples and followers of the lead antagonist, Harrow, and then being unwilling to kill him as well. Then the pandering to the ‘woke’ crowd and having the God’s chamber be a ‘safe space to talk’. Incredibly laughable.
The show at its best is a misfire and a great vehicle to show off Oscar Isaac’s talent, and at its worst, is pure political agenda at play. Gotta have an inclusion of “The MCU’s first Egyptian/Arab superhero” and we must have an evil, older, white man as the main antagonist. Our love interest must be able to fend for herself and show herself just as capable as her male counterparts; even though, the bad guys will suddenly lose their intellect and shoot directly at the parts where she’s armored. She’s only capable because suddenly every bad guy is highly incompetent yet when dealing with Moon Knight, they are a force to be reckoned with requiring his total mastery between Marc and Steven.
Congrats Marvel, once again y’all have dressed up a shiny turd of mediocre writing with shiny production value and dubious CGI. Let’s hope Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness doesn’t suffer from the same problems.
Bogdan's Review Blog 