Moon Knight Review

The great thing about Moon Knight is that it takes its time to show how horrendous of a disorder DID is. It makes the audience feel for Steven, I mean the poor old sod can’t even keep a date. He continues to struggle to make sense of it all until ghosts from Marc’s (the original personality) past crawl their way back into his life. It is then Steven realizes that he hasn’t just been simply sleepwalking. As it turns out, Marc is the avatar of “Khonshu”, an ancient Egyptian God of the Moon, and has been doing his bidding whenever Steven managed to get a nap in. It’s where the adventure truly starts, and boy are you in for a ride.

The first few episodes of Moon Knight require a bit of patience to get through. If you want all your answers straight up, then this show might get a little frustrating for you. Slowly but surely all the players involved come into the light one after another. Among them is Arthur Harrow, a former avatar of Khonshu who’s grown tired of the current world order and wants a new God at the helm. There’s also Layla, Marc’s girlfriend who finds herself looking for him but comes across Steven instead, someone who has no clue who she is.

The interactions between Marc and Steven are great to see. They offer a bit of comic relief from the character’s otherwise depressing predicament. As Steven becomes more aware of the nature of Khonshu, both of them have their own ideologies about the use of their powers, with Steven pleading for a gentler approach and Marc just straight up butchering anyone who stands in their path. However, if Steven and Marc are to have any chance at taking down their nemesis they must resolve their conflicts and learn to work together.

With all the chaos going on, there’s great relatability for the audience to feel for Steven, who’s as clueless as we are. When everyone is caught up, Moon Knight takes us for an action-infused ride amongst grandiose Egyptian landscapes and deserts.

Both Marc and Steven are played by Oscar Issac, who does a great job at portraying each character’s quirks and mannerisms. I am a huge fan of his work and it’s great to see him embody such a nuanced character for Marvel. Some of the personality transition scenes done on camera are absolutely mind-blowing, I could pinpoint the moment when Steven left the body for Marc to take control. Issac’s acting prowess really shines in Episode 5 when both personalities must uncover secrets from their past that led to their affliction in the first place. The episode is both wholesome and heartbreaking at the same time, with Issac doing some of his best work.

Another thing I’d like to praise here is the music, it both lends to the mood of the whole Egyptian adventure, while also offering space for quiet rumination at the ending of each episode. A detail I especially loved is how Marc and Steven have their own costumes when they channel Khonshu’s power. It makes for a great spectacle at the very end of the season, with both of them fighting in harmony but in very much their own fighting styles and costumes.  

May Calamawy delivers a standout performance as Layla el Faouly, who eventually comes into her own as the first Marvel superhero of an Egyptian origin. She’s equally as hard-hitting as Oscar Issac’s Moon Knight, a departure from the damsel in distress most female companions to male superheroes are doomed to play.

Marvel’s Moon Knight was a pleasant surprise. I was unsure how a relatively unpopular character would turn out on the bigger screen but I found myself thoroughly enjoying each episode. It manages to bring an entirely new character to center stage, one that doesn’t play second fiddle to an already established one. I also like the fact that Marvel was able to preserve some mystery about the character with the third personality still under wraps by the end of the last episode. All in all, Moon Knight was a daring experiment on Marvel’s part, an initiative I’d like to see more of.