Gods and Monsters

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.

Marvel really need to give us more episodes for series. The 6 episodes structure doesn't work. The finale sort of felt rushed, It was enjoyable but it left me wanting more instead of giving me a satisfying ending.

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...

At points, "Gods and Monsters" often feels more like a checklist than an actual episode of television. It is a narrative that dutifully cycles through a familiar list of things that a show like this needs to do before crossing the finish line. It's perhaps the most formulaic season finale of any of the Marvel streaming shows, hitting each of its beats with clockwork precision, paying out exactly what the audience expects when they expect it. There is the obligatory gigantic computer-generated climax, as Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) initiates the apocalypse. As is customary at the end of these stories, a supporting character gets to become a superhero teasing future adventures, as Layla (May Calamawy) becomes the avatar of Taweret (Antonia Salib). There are multiple computer-generated throwdowns between Ammit (Saba Mubarak) and Khonshu (F. Murray Abraham), with customary "we're not so different" dialogue. Even the episode's surprises aren't really surprises. As Marc and Steven (Oscar Isaac) flee through the desert, chased by a sandstorm, Taweret swings out of nowhere for a heroic cavalry moment to literally break the wave. The episode's post-credits teaser confirms something that fans had speculated since the show was first announced and that the show had all but confirmed as early as "The Friendly Type," that there was at least a third personality in that body: Jake Lockley. To be fair, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. As a rule, when these streaming shows take a sharp swerve in their final episodes, often to reveal a fan-favorite villain like Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) or Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio), they tend to derail themselves. Loki went from being the most interesting and compelling of these streaming shows to a massive disappointment when it undercut its core themes and character arcs so its final episode could tease future story beats. Nevertheless, "Gods and Monsters" makes a big deal of Marc's refusal to kill the incapacitated Harrow.

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.