(Mini Series) Moon Knight - Should Have Been a More Interesting Dark Tone Superhero Series

Like previous TV series based on Marvel Comic characters, I was excited to watch a new one that was released on Disney+ few weeks ago. As usual, I prefer to wait till the finale almost released to start watching it. So as soon as the final episode was available, I could immediately finish the whole season. Well, let's get on with it now.

Brief Story Line

Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac - Dune, Star Wars: The Last Jedi etc) was a socially awkward man who worked at a museum in London. He was having sleep disorder and was suffering from lost time, waking up in places he could not remember. After one of his "dreams" where he met with a mysterious cult leader named Harrow (Ethan Hawke - The Guilty, The Magnificent Seven (2016) etc), Steven was somehow being chased by him in real life.

Things got further complicated when Steven saw glimpses of a scary monster, later on revealed to be the Egyptian moon God Khonshu (voiced by F. Murray Abraham - How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Last Action Hero etc). While trying to escape from Harrow, Steven was helped by a woman named Layla (May Calamawy - Ramy TV series etc) who he never met before, but seemed to know him. Steven finally realize that something dangerous were happening while he blacked out.

So what actually happened to Steven? And why was he experiencing blackout and what was he involved in? You can find them all in this series.

End of Brief Story Line

When I started watching this series, it immediately gave me a dark & serious vibe. It did not feel light or bright like other MCU series in the past few years. As I continued watching, I was quite intrigued by what was happening with Steven Grant. The first episode ended fantastically which made me eager to proceed further. In subsequent episodes, I could gradually understand better on Steven's background and the series became more exciting and surprisingly fun.

The first 3 episodes had some cool action sequence, even if some of the more violent ones were not shown. Meanwhile the 4th episode was fun with a strong treasure hunt feel. From what I understand, the series creator Jeremy Slater (writer of Death Note movie and The Umbrella Academy TV series etc) wanted to make it have similar tone with Indiana Jones movies. But, the 5th episode was not really to my personal liking. Despite revealing a bit of shocking moment, I felt the psychological part was too much. I personally feel in this area, the X-Men series Legion was better. Fortunately, the final episode was awesome and made up for my lack of satisfaction of its previous episode.

This series understandably was likened by critics with praises on Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke's performance. I myself was quite amazed by Isaac as he was really good in portraying his roles. Other cast that I liked was May Calamawy who was wonderful, especially in the final episode and F. Murray Abraham whose voice sounded great with commanding tone. Btw, Khonshu himself was portrayed by Karim El Hakim. The series also have some Egyptian descent cast and crew, like Calamawy, Khalid Abdalla (playing the avatar of Osiris) and the director of episodes 1, 3, 5 and 6, Mohamed Diab.   

For a series that focused on a relatively unknown superhero from Marvel, I thought Marvel Studios was pretty successful in their experiment of making a darker tone superhero. However, I would have liked it even more if the violent parts were shown to us instead of having only the aftermath, as it made the series felt too soft for a supposedly brutal superhero. Those dark Marvel series like Daredevil or The Punisher were more satisfying for me. But then again, the studio might not have the courage yet to have that sort of violence as it could probably ruin Disney's family friendly brand.

Overall this was a pretty entertaining series with some nice action. Unlike majority's views who adored the 5th episode, I considered it as my least favorite. The final episode even if it had a great climax, ended with something that was too mind bending for my taste. Luckily there was a mid end credit scene which provided a revelation that I had suspected all along. It was an intelligent way of keeping the series interesting (and open for a second season should they choose to do so). So once again, if you are fans of Marvel Studios works, then likely you would enjoy this. It was said to be part of phase 4 of MCU, though it did not seem to have direct references to it.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars