Gods and Monsters

Moon Knight continues the bad Marvel series' trend of having a rushed and disappointing finale. Forced plot points, cringy moments, badly choreographed fights and even terrible cgi. Thanks the bad writing and the pace of the episode itself you aren't able to fully understand why certain things are happening, leaving during the vision a sense of confusion.

The post credit doesn't save the day at all...

An issue with these Disney+ Marvel shows is how underwhelming and rushed the finales can be. Sadly, Moon Knight is no exception. The last episode slowed the pacing down to bring us some fantastic character development, but it sadly means this finale has too much to do in a single moment. There are some solid beats and cool scenes, but the attempts at wrapping up the story and finishing arcs feels rushed and sloppy.

But this was satisfying enough! Wish it was longer and contained more explanation, but the end credits scene makes a lot up for that. Overall this series is really enjoyable and really well though out. Better pacing than most other Marvel series and a smart exchange of character development and action. Satisfied!

This is not entirely a good thing. After last week's great character driven episode, this episode, being the finale, had a lot to unpack and had a standard to fulfil. Imagine the disappointment when I saw this was one of the shorter episodes of the season. This gave me the fear of it being rushed.

We'll start with the good of this episode. The cinematography of this episode was great, the wide shots in particular giving us a sense of scale and colours which made it that much more entertaining to watch, even if it was half CGI in the shots. Even shots of the inevitably predictable CGI battle were great, and I wish we got more of these kinds of shots. In particular, more shots of our main characters battling in the foreground with the Gods in the background.

On top of that, the acting was great and has been throughout the show, I don't think I'll ever get tired of characters switching to and from different personalities. From their accents to their body language. It was great.

I expected this episode to feature a lot more Moon Knight as throughout the show he has been there for less than 10 minutes collectively. This ep did not disappoint on that front, and it was fantastic seeing him go alternate between personalities in battle.

Finally, the questions that this episode brings in the latter half of the episode gives us more of the investment into this world and our urge to discover more. This is said to be a limited series, which I'm glad it is, I look forward to seeing this character in future films with this show being the foundation of the character.

This brings us onto the bad.

The former half of the episode had me asking questions, not in the way of intrigue and mystery but has me questioning the plot and plot decisions. It took me out of what was happening by making me blindly accept what was happening. This was largely due to the fact that this episode felt very rushed. The first half had us already into the CGI battle when the prior two episodes had us in different locations entirely dealing with a whole different narrative. It felt, they needed to get this conclusion out there and get to it as quick as they could by just having the script feel like its jumping from place to place and missing a few beats on how we got there. This led to an anticlimactic resolution to the show, left me feeling underwhelmed. It just felt like it was all too easy.

Overall, the episode had small moments that were great, but felt rushed it kept in line with ending how an MCU film/show would typically end which isn't the greatest thing. That being said, this is the strongest MCU show to date for me, largely because of last episode but this episode, despite its flaws, was entertaining nonetheless with a great ending leaving me anticipating Moon Knight's next appearance.

P. S. There is one mid-credits scene so stay tuned.

P. P. S. Again, I have to praise the showrunners for not relying on the larger MCU films & shows to fuel it. This is it's own standalone show and after this episode, it solidifies a great foundation for this character.

P. P. P. S. I hope the next show introduces a MCU TV intro theme, I say in yet another review.

I was tempted to give this episode a 6 or 7 but after thinking about it a little, this episode is quite frankly inexcusable. Marvel/Disney+ is really dropping the ball with these shows with a lack of committal to trying certain genres and their inability to break from the marvel formula is leaves an empty feeling after finishing each show. Moon Knight had some serious highs and it's on par with Wandavision and Loki for me, but it consistently switches between dark/gritty and fun kids show.

This episode was just generic boss battle with no emotional stakes at all, which is quite the letdown after two fantastic episodes (albeit with their own issues). The runtime was a whopping 35 something minutes, which just shows that this episode was set up to be underwhelming because the series didn't build suspense and stakes and therefore didn't need much time for the finale.

Marvel needs to stop trying to apply the boring marvel formula which works for popcorn movies, not TV. Build stakes and focus on character interactions. Let the CGI come when needed, not rely on it.

I was still entertained by the episode and the post credits scene was fantastic, but it predictably ended in a generic superhero battle in a bland location with no stakes.