Moon Knight – The Friendly Type review S1 E3

April 13, 2022 Jeffrey Lyles 0 Comments Ethan Hawke, F. Murray Abraham, Marvel Cinematic Universe, May Calamawy, Mohamed Diab, Moon Knight, Oscar Isaac

This episode plays out more like a big chase with Marc and Layla trying to track down Arthur.

Watching mercenary Marc in action proves a lot more fun than Steven cower around for an hour. The rooftop fight with Marc against three guys plays out pretty well. And we get a teaser of a potentially third identity at play along with Marc and Steven. Kohnshu decides the best way to stop Arthur is to summon the other gods.

Kohnshu says it’s a bad idea and he was right.

What remains cool about Moon Knight is it has a decidedly different feel than most of the other Disney+ MCU shows. From the music, cast, setting and tone it stands apart in a good way. Director Mohamed Diab made excellent use of locations and colors to create the most visually stunning episode yet.

The set designs throughout the episode are fantastic, but the Temple of Gaza is truly astonishing. Kohnshu speaks to the gods through Marc. This scene felt a tad overblown. It was more because of the borderline hokeyness of having Oscar Isaac yelling Kohnshu’s dialogue in a showy, Shakespearean manner. Isaac has been great through the series, but this wasn’t a great call.

Arthur’s calm demeanor also made it hard for the other gods to take Kohnshu/Marc’s claims about him trying to open Ammit’s tomb seriously. Granted, if the gods recognized Arthur’s threat it would be a pretty anticlimactic end to the series yet he’s so clearly lying they should have had some suspicion.

Kohnshu’s one ally among the gods, offers Marc a clue about finding the tomb before Arthur. While Marc’s search proves fruitless, Layla arrives just in time with a better lead — her old friend Anton (the late Gaspard Ulliel). Anton has a massive property along with countless rare artifacts he collects to preserve for historical sake. And we even get a Madripoor reference, which means even more now that we’ve actually seen it in the MCU.

This isn’t really Marc’s scene, so he’s forced to let Steven out to help translate the sarcophagus. Just as Arthur arrives with a better proposal for Anton. Enough talking. Time for a little Moon Knight action.

Moon Knight isn’t like most of the other heroes. He’s a brutal, unrelenting fighter who’s not afraid of killing. This opening up a logical pathway for characters like Daredevil and The Punisher in the MCU. They’re not quipping and are just highly efficient fighters.

moon-knight-the-friendly-type-review-moon-knight — Photo Credit: MARZ VFX/Marvel

With this episode, we got to see Moon Knight as a fairly unstoppable hero. Although gun-toting henchman and a mid-boss on a horse isn’t exactly the biggest threat, watching Moon Knight unleashed was pretty fun.

Although Marc/Steven and Layla have the information from the sarcophagus, they still need the actual coordinates for the tomb. Now it’s time for Kohnshu to make a sacrifice by using his power to reveal the tomb’s location. It’s a drain on him, but not as bad as when the other gods place his essence in a statue so he can cause no more mischief. They did warn him.

Arthur comes thisclose to going into full villain monologue but leaves it ambiguous enough to suggest he really does feel like he’s doing the right thing. At the midway point in the series, has Arthur really done enough to be considered the villain? He didn’t even smash the statue containing Kohnshu’s essence.

So far, Moon Knight is still rolling on a methodical pace that seems to encourage more of a binge watch than a weekly format. That’s not a bad thing and probably works better for this story.