Moon Knight Premiere Review: Oscar Isaac’s performance carries an uneven, yet promising series premiere

The latest MCU series on Disney Plus, Moon Knight is the riskiest series on the streaming service.

Moon Knight is at its best when it allows the performances by Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke to shine. Isaac has the difficult task of balancing Steven Grant’s cogency. The first episode does an excellent job of showcasing Steven’s ever-loosening grip on reality. Whenever Steven starts getting a grip, he and the audience is thrown for a loop. The approach is unsettling and while it works for the most part can be unsatisfying when it comes to the action scenes. You never see how Steven/Mark Spector gets the upper hand, only the aftermath.

The British accent Isacc is using as Steven can be grating at times. However, easily more annoying is the voice of Khonshu. F. Murray Abraham‘s voice comes off more teasing like Tom Hardy in Venom than threatening or scary. The CGI is terrible and easily the worst out of any Disney Plus show.

In spite of those issues, the ending is great and seems to set up a shift to a more confident Mark Spector persona than the meek Steven. Hawke is quietly terrifying as the religious, cult-like figure Arthur Harrow. There’s plenty to build off of in the dynamic between Isaac and Hawke.

With the overview out of the way, let’s dive deeper into the elements that stood out in the series premiere. There may be some minor spoilers. Moon Knight is available to stream on Disney Plus.

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Losing Time in Moon Knight

Steven is simply trying to stay awake throughout Moon Knight. When he goes to sleep, he wakes up in a different place.

The beginning of the episode shows Steven unshackling himself from bedposts. He has a relatively normal morning with little wrinkles here and there. He’s summing up his plans for the day to his mom on the phone (we never hear another voice), trying to catch the bus and confirming dating plans with a coworker. All of these are a little off-kilter.

For instance, he doesn’t remember making dating plans but goes along with it. While riding the bus home from work, he suddenly wakes up in a field with a busted jaw and no memory of how he arrived there.

The way Moon Knight messes with time and Steven’s grip on reality is the strongest aspect of the episode. It’s far more compelling than the British accent or the voices in Steven’s head. Steven will wake up thinking these visions were a nightmare and only occurred while he fell asleep. In reality, what he perceived as a nightmare was an actuality that played out over a couple of days. These weird gaps in time add to Steven’s torment.

Khonshu’s Presence

In addition to losing track of time, Steven’s mind is pretty crowded. There are two voices in his head.

Mark is Steven’s other personality. The episode never shows Mark in control until the very end of the episode. He takes over briefly whenever Steven is in deep trouble. When Steven reemerged, there was usually a trail of dead bodies. The episode never shows how Mark kills people, which is quite disorienting in its own way. Steven does become more cognizant of Mark’s presence as the episode goes along.

There’s even a scene reminiscent of 2002’s Spider-Man where the Green Goblin would talk to Norman while looking into a mirror. Steven has multiple conversations with Mark while staring into a mirror.

Khonshu’s purpose is to chide Steven for being incompetent and to wish Mark was in control. Basically, Khonshu is Venom to Steven’s more timid Eddy Brock. I’m not sure that was the intention, but that’s what I thought of every time I heard Khonshu’s voice. Khonshu’s voice pulled me out of the episode each time he popped up.

A Harrowing Affair

Hawke provides an eerie calm as a cult leader. In a creepy scene that seems to give him spiritual judgment types of power, Arthur cleanses the sins of one follower and condemns another. The way he handles both situations in a cavalier-like manner with a reassuring tone is an understated, but powerful display of his control.

There aren’t too many scenes between Isaac and Hawke, but they’re all strong scenes. I’m more eager to see Mark square off with Arthur though than I am Steven.

Moon Knight Final Thoughts

While not without its missteps, Moon Knight‘s premiere is promising enough. Isaac’s performance makes this a worthwhile episode.

As for Moon Knight‘s standing in the MCU hierarchy of shows, Moon Knight has a ton of promise it just has to fix some of the small details. Hawkeye is my favorite of the MCU series thus far and Moon Knight‘s premier is far more interesting than Kate Bishop’s by-the-numbers introduction.

Perhaps having one more episode would help settle us into what this show’s world will be moving forward. Alas this is an acceptable start for one of Marvel’s Midnight Son’s