‘Moon Knight’ – ‘Gods and Monsters’ – Review
It all comes down to this, the final episode of Marvel Studio’s Moon Knight and the epic final confrontation between the forces of the light and darkness as Marc Spector/Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac) aims at cult leader Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) and decides to end his dark plan once and for all.
With no time left to stop the diabolical cult leader and the servant of the dark goddess Ammit’s power, Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke), Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac) reunites with Steven Grant and submits to the power of Khonshu one final time. All Egypt is set for an explosive final fight as Spector in the guise of Moon Knight, resurrected from the land of the dead and ready to fight takes on Harrow in a full-on brawl. And it’s winner take all.
Moon Knight director and shepherd Mohamed Diab amps up the volume for this, the penultimate episode of Moon Knight, ‘Gods and Monsters’ and he swings for the fences with one hell of a home run in this epic final episode. A fight of grand proportions has been growing and it all explodes in this final episode as Marc Spector/Steven Grant takes on Arthur Harrow and Khonshu takes on Ammit. And Diab fills up every part of the frame as he brings this epic fight to life. The action is big, wild and fun, but also serves the character and blends into the ‘action as narrative’ motif that I am quite fond of, and we see the full circle journey of Spector and Grant come to completion as these characters find a resolution with another, accept their mission as Moon Knight and square up to take out Ammit.
But it’s not just Isaac’s Spector/Grant who gets to have all the fun this time around as May Calamawy steps into the fight for the forces of light as Layla El-Faouly and finds her way into it. Pledging herself to the Goddess Taweret, Calamawy’s Layla becomes the avatar known as Scarlet Scarab, and she jumps into the action that unfolds before her. Together Calamawy’s Layla and Isaac’s Spector do a double tag-team double-take on Harrow’s forces and their co-battle is a hell of a lot of fun. It’s cool to see another Marvel couple battle it up on screen and Spector and Layla are the newest addition to the Marvel pantheon of husband/wife heroes and this action of seeing them together makes for some very fun moments on screen.
Audiences wanting some intense CGI action will also be pleased with the full-on battle between the Moon God Khonshu and the demoness Ammit, and these two mighty gods rip throw Cairo like nothing you’ve ever seen before in the MCU. This isn’t a group of humanoid superheroes battling it out, but instead two colossal gods of immense and unfathomable power, and Diab pulls out all the stops to show their destructive fury in all its glory. Diab doesn’t hold back and the visual effects in ‘Gods and Monsters’ elevate the intensity of the story that he is telling and helps to make this final episode stand out in the series.
‘Gods and Monsters’ has plenty of cool moments, and action junkies will get their fix with this episode and it’s a full completion of the series to date. Diab also packs in a few surprises for audiences and you’ll want to stay for the end credits thanks to the introduction of a dangerous new character who will shift up the presence of Moon Knight in future adaptations. Where we go next with Moon Knight is still to be seen, but it was great to see Marvel Studios experimenting with darker and more psychologically complex characters in this series, and I’m hoping that we’ll see more of this experimentation in future adaptations down the line.
Moon Knight comes to a complete ending with ‘Gods and Monsters’ and this introduction of a very different kind of Marvel superhero has offered up a brand new direction within the MCU and it’ll be exciting to see how Oscar Isaac and the character of Moon Knight develops within the MCU as we move further into it.
Moon Knight streams every Wednesday on Disney+
Image: Walt Disney Pictures
