Marvel’s latest show is pointless
Perhaps not since Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins has there been a more cartoonishly broad British accent than Oscar Isaac’s in the latest Marvel TV series Moon Knight. He is introduced to us as Steven Grant, a mild-mannered London gift shop employee who says things like “bloody ‘el!”, and – to a guy outside his flat still selling the old brushes and brooms – “still sellin’ the ol’ brushes and bwooms?” He also sleeps strapped to a bed, surrounded by a moat of smooth, unbroken sand.
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The voice is certainly a bold creative choice from Isaac, one that may prove off-putting for some, but it works surprisingly well as part of Moon Knight’s rompishly light and playful early episodes. Created by Jeremy Slater, best known for his work on Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, the six-part series offers a loose take on one of Marvel’s lesser-known heroes: Marc Spector, a mercenary with dissociative identity disorder – meaning he has multiple personalities – who has made a deal with Khonshu, Egyptian god of the Moon, in exchange for superpowers.
One of these personalities is the oblivious Steven Grant, who – despite his efforts – keeps waking up in strange places with no memory of how he got there. He is late for work. He misses dates. He wakes up in other countries, perplexed at why people are shooting at him. He is a hapless loser in the body of a badass superhero.
It’s a fun idea, and considering that Oscar Isaac looks like handsome Hollywood actor Oscar Isaac, he does an endearing job of selling the awkward physicality of a nerdy, unremarkable guy hilariously out of his depth. There is something almost farcical about him trying to keep up with it all, which is complimented by the first episode’s wittily-constructed action sequences: one moment a scared Steven is surrounded by bad guys, the next they’re all dead at his feet. In general though, despite the efforts of Egyptian director Mohamed Diab, who has made efforts to give the show a sense of dynamism and unease, Moon Knight possesses the kind of deadeningly neutral visual aesthetic that underpins most Marvel projects.
In a recent interview with Empire magazine about the series, Slater said that he wanted to tell a “dark, complex story” mixed with “big, fun, supernatural Amblin-style magic,” referring to Steven Spielberg’s production company. The latter is certainly reflected in the goofiness of Moon Knight’s stakes, as well as the show’s villain. His name is Arthur Harrow, a cult leader played by Ethan Hawke who wants to resurrect the Egyptian god Ammit so that they can rid the world of anyone whose heart is impure (including children). It’s a good old-fashioned evil plan, with a long-haired Hawke almost gliding into scenes to spout some hippy preacher nonsense about how Ammit could have stopped Hitler or prevented the Armenian genocide. Oh, and he also has a tattoo of some scales on his arm, which move about on his skin as he takes people’s hands and delivers judgements on the moral purity of their soul, committing them to death if the judgement is bad. Cancel culture really has gone too far this time.
Ethan Hawke plays the show’s villain, cult leader Arthur Harrow (Credit: Marvel Studios)
When Hawke first signed on for Moon Knight, there were raised eyebrows thanks to comments he had made in the past about the debatable quality of superhero movies. “It’s not Bresson,” he said in an interview with website The Film Stage in 2018. “It’s not Bergman. But they talk about it like it is.” Assuming Hawke didn’t just fancy buying a new kitchen, a possible explanation for his change of heart might have something to do with how detached Moon Knight feels from the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe. Indeed, judging by the four episodes available to critics, it’s less of a traditional superhero story – the suit makes relatively few appearances – and more of a rollicking action-adventure comedy. You can sense the influences of The Mummy or Raiders of the Lost Ark as our dual-personality hero journeys to Egypt, alongside archaeologist Layla (played by the likeable Egyptian-Palestinian actress May Calamawy), to raid pyramids and tombs in the hope of stopping Harrow.
Platform: Disney+
Number of episodes: Six
Creator: Jeremy Slater
Starring:
Oscar Isaac
Ethan Hawke
May Calamawy
Start date: 30 March 2022
As the story develops, it is most interesting when pivoting around the struggle between Steven and Marc, played by Isaac with broader shoulders and a more familiar American accent, for the control of their body. There is a fun moment, for example, where Steven punches himself after doing something that angers Marc. A la Fight Club or Me, Myself and Irene, it’s a buddy-body comedy where both of the buddies are in the same body – and the superhero’s greatest nemesis is himself. But while Isaac has been adamant in interviews that the show’s focus on dissociative identity disorder is more than a gimmick, this only really starts to become true in the fourth episode, in which Moon Knight begins to explore the toll and background of such a condition. It remains to be seen how well the show follows through with this mental health theme.
Perhaps the main reason why Moon Knight is merely good rather than great is that the wider story struggles to live up to its compelling lead character/performance. The plot is too cartoonish to take seriously, but the pacing of its 50-minute episodes is not quick or snappy enough to sweep us along in the adventure. There are too many side-quests, too many scenes that could have been an email instead of a meeting. It is a common criticism of many miniseries in the streaming era, but Moon Knight is a classic example of a five-hour TV show that would have worked far better as a tight, punchy two-hour movie.
Instead, it ends up feeling both bloated and disposable, something that ultimately has no great purpose to exist other than as another piece of content thrown into the jaws of the Disney+ machine.
★★★☆☆
Moon Knight premieres on Disney+ on 30 March
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