Moon Knight’s very first episode landed on Disney Plus earlier today, and boy, was it a fun one! Here’s our full review of the very first episode (called The Goldfish Problem).
WARNING: There will be some spoilers for Moon Knight Episode 1 in this review because it would be rather hard to talk about it without mentioning some key plot points in the premiere episode of this new MCU series.
So, let’s get started with this review of Moon Knight’s very first episode on Disney Plus.
The episode starts off with us following Steven Grant (played by Oscar Isaac).
That’s ‘Steven’ with a ‘v’ by the way, just in case you were wondering.
He works at The British Museum in the gift shop, but he’s obsessed with all things ancient Egyptian and knows more than your usual gift shop attendant.
The thing is, Steven is very strange.
We first meet Steven waking up and he’s chained his ankle to a post next to his bed.
He’s got a whole ritual after waking up, which involves looking at footprints left in sand he’s place around his bed, and he also takes take off his front door.
Something’s clearly not quite right with Steven, and we quickly find out what it is.
If you know anything about the Marvel Comics Moon Knight character, then you’ll know that he suffers from dissociative identity disorder (DID).
Let’s talk about Oscar Isaac’s ‘London’ accent
Credit: Marvel Studios
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We soon find that out about Steven in this episode when he wakes up in a little village in what looks like Germany – I’m not totally sure where the village was located.
It was in the mountains and it looked rather picturesque.
However, Steven quickly realises that something’s wrong.
First off, he wakes up lying face down in some grass and has a dislocated jaw.
He then starts getting shot at and ends up coming face to face with Ethan Hawke’s Arthur Harrow.
Harrow is a cult leader and he has ties to the Egyptian god, Ammit.
In an attempt to escape, Steven suffers from blackouts and wakes up with carnage all around him.
Dead people, lots of blood and general chaos seem to follow Steven around.
That’s about as much as I’m willing to tell you about the plot, and it might be too much for some people already.
What I will say is that I understand why they opted to give Isaac’s Steven Grant character a UK accent.
The issue is, Isaac’s British accent is pretty bad, and it does become rather distracting.
Hopefully, he’ll revert to his more natural US accent in future episodes of Moon Knight.
Moon Knight’s tone is very different to the rest of the MCU
Credit: Marvel Studios
Read more: Moon Knight Set Video Reveals A Huge Action Sequence
The thing I really loved about this episode was its tone.
I’ve been waiting for quite some time for Marvel to embrace their more supernatural side.
Moon Knight is the perfect introduction to that.
This series will explore ancient Egyptian mythology, which is both fascinating and creepy!
I mean, they used to pull people’s brains and other organs out from their noses! Disgusting, but also fascinating.
There were some brilliant shots involving the god Khonshu (voiced by F. Murray Abraham).
I really loved those moments they were rather intense.
I can’t wait to see whether they explore this side of the Moon Knight character even more in future episodes.
These MCU shows suffer from some shoddy CGI
Credit: Marvel Studios
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However, I did, at times, find the CGI rather jarring in this first episode.
There’s a car chase in the mountains that just felt rather odd to me.
I couldn’t quite tell whether it was poor or rushed CGI or whether it was more an issue with the way the scene was filmed.
It could actually be a combination of both, but there were some CGI moments in this scene that really took me out of the episode.
When the CGI is so poor that you notice it, then there’s a pretty big issue at play.
However, what I will say is that most of these MCU shows have suffered from some rather poor moments of CGI.
I think it has more to do with the fact that they have to make these series on a tighter budget than the movies and with less time.
Given that these series are longer than movies means that visual effects artists will be stretched very thin.
Moon Knight Episode 1 gives me a lot of hope for this show and the MCU
Credit: Marvel Studios
Read more: Moon Knight’s First Full Trailer To Be Released Today
However, those issues aside, I have to say that my overall feelings about the first episode of Moon Knight are very positive.
I can’t wait to see what happens next and I also think this show marks an interesting new journey for the MCU.
This marks the begin of the MCU’s journey into the supernatural.
The first episode does have that iconic Marvel-sheen to it, however, there’s also a rather more ‘adult’ tone underneath it all.
I’m hoping that this spells good news for the likes of Blade, Black Knight, Daredevil, The Punisher and even Deadpool.
These are all characters that are going to be coming to the MCU pretty soon and Marvel Studios will have to figure out who to include them without doing a disservice to those characters, but also, in turn, alienating a large section of Marvel’s fanbase and audience.
What do you make of this review?
Did you like the first episode of Moon Knight on Disney Plus?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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