“Moon Knight”: It’s so dark, it’s really not Marvel at all

It’s been a quarter since “Hawkeye” ended, and the first Marvel series in 2022 is finally online.

This time around, though, the show’s protagonist is a character less familiar to MCU fans — Moon Knight.

The following content contains spoilers, please watch after watching the movie.

The story begins with a middle-aged man who looks ordinary and even cowardly.

This man’s name is Steven. He is unlucky, incomprehensible, and his name is not even remembered. Ordinary people among ordinary people don’t seem to be particularly good at anything, except for Egyptian mythology.

At night, he refused to fall asleep and tried his best to keep himself awake.

When he fell asleep accidentally, he unexpectedly found that he had come to a strange place from home, and at the same time there were several voices arguing in his mind, saying something strange about “give your body to Mark”.

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He was surprised, and even more strange, he found a strange golden object in the pocket of his clothes. Under the camera, behind him, a strange huge figure walked slowly. He turned around in horror, only to find himself almost shot, and the other person seemed to recognize who he was. For this reason, he had to start fleeing.

He came to the village, and in the crowd, he witnessed a missionary scene of a seemingly well-respected man. Strangely, the missionary recognized the male protagonist, claimed that he was a mercenary, and asked him to return the Khaji Da, the golden object in his pocket, to himself.

Of course Steven wanted to give it back to the missionary, but at this time, he heard a blocking voice in his mind, and at the same time, he found that his body was completely out of control, and he listened to that voice… …

During the dispute, he was in a trance for a while, but when he regained consciousness, he found that everyone around him had been brutally defeated, his hands were covered with blood, and the voice in his mind had not stopped…

He is just an ordinary person, and he has no experience or mental preparation to deal with this kind of thing. He panicked and ran away in a cake car. .

The chasing soldiers came from the rear, and the strange trance struck again, and he was infected with human life again…

I like this part very much, the intense pursuit, the violent killing, the funny cake truck, the cheerful music, everything seems so absurd and ironic…

The next second, he woke up from his bed, thinking that everything was just a nightmare that was too real, but found some strange signs, such as his fish suddenly adding a fin, such as time passing much more than he imagined… …

I also like the next shot. The male protagonist is standing in front of several mirrors and talking to himself. The mirrors turn him into three people, looking serious and weird.

Of course, we all know that this is to express the multiple personalities of the male protagonist.

In this episode, there are a lot of shots done through mirror reflections, which are easily reminiscent of another Marvel character, the old Green Goblin Norman Osborn.

Back to the plot, the male protagonist found that he had an old-fashioned mobile phone and a key hidden in his home. After turning it on, there were a lot of missed calls from a strange woman named “Laila”. The call was connected, and the other party called him “Mark” and said his accent has changed…

In his home, he heard the same call as in the dream, the lights flashed on and off, the atmosphere was particularly scary, the elevator broke down, and he saw strange creatures rushing towards him…

This episode, in terms of shooting techniques and atmosphere creation, is not much different from ordinary horror movies, but it has a different flavor in Marvel’s film and television dramas.

Once again in a trance, he appeared in the bus that usually goes to work, and people looked at him very differently from the past.

At this moment, he found out that the missionary who was suspected to be in the dream came to him and insisted on returning Khaji Da.

During the dialogue, he found that the man actually worshipped the demon Amit in Egyptian mythology as a god, and claimed that this “god” had been betrayed…

The amazing thing is that this man even knew that there were multiple voices talking in the male protagonist’s head…

At the end of the episode, in the dark museum, a voice again demands that he return Khaji Da and sends a monster trying to take his life.

But the story didn’t end, he fled to the bathroom, in the center of several mirrors, he heard the familiar voice in his mind, and he also saw someone who seemed calmer talking to him in the mirror

This time, his life was at stake, he chose to cooperate and handed over his body to the control of another…

At this point, the “Moon Knight” image finally officially debuted.

So far, we have seen two personalities of the protagonist, but the official poster almost makes it clear that he will have three personalities.

The first episode is narrated from Steven’s perspective, and the second and third episodes are likely to be the home grounds of the other two personalities. According to this logic, we are likely to see the plot officially climax in the fourth episode.

And the story of the villain will generally take half an episode to one episode, that is to say, the final battle may only be one episode, plus the length of the cameo eggs that may appear, the time is still quite rushed…

In addition, Steven in the first episode was set to be a cowardly and miserable unlucky character, but in the comics, this personality should have been a rich man, obviously MCU has made a lot of changes to Moon Knight’s character.

In the comics, Moon Knight’s power comes from the moon god Kongsu in Egyptian mythology, and the degree of ability depends entirely on the wishes of the moon god, so he usually fights crime at night by “representing the moon to destroy you”.

His main character is Mark, the rich Steven and the taxi driver Jack are split personalities, in addition, as Moon Knight, he also has a rational Mr. Knight personality.

From the current episode, Jack’s personality is likely not to appear. The three personalities are the hapless ordinary Steven, the tough guy mercenary Mark, and the knight who has been ordering him.

Judging from the hints in the show, Mark is likely to remain the main character, and all stories are closely related to him.

Among the characters currently appearing, Arthur Harrow played by Ethan Hawke is a villain no matter how you look at it – this character looks too much like a cult leader, whether it is the masochistic behavior at the beginning or the state of madness that has been shown since then. .

In the previously announced preview, we can also see that he has summoned a mysterious creature – of course, this creature may not be a complete villain, in case it is Werewolf By Night…

The ultimate villain, according to rumors, will be Midnight Man, played by Gaspard Ulliel, a criminal who likes to steal and even kill at midnight.

In a theft case, he was stopped by Moon Knight. During the escape, he accidentally fell into the river and was disfigured under the corrosion of chemical wastewater from the sewers. During this period, the police also took his stolen “collectibles” All confiscated.

To this end, he decided that Moon Knight was the culprit that made him lose everything. It is a pity that on January 19 this year, actor Gaspard died of a skiing accident at the age of 37. “Moon Knight” has also become his posthumous work…

In addition, it is worth mentioning that Oscar Isaac, who plays Moon Knight, is actually playing a Marvel role for the third time. He previously played the big boss Apocalypse in “X-Men: Apocalypse‎”, and played the role of “Spider-Man” : Into the Spider-Verse‎” Voice of Spider-Man 2099 in the end credits.

Making a show for “Moon Knight” was a bold endeavor.

In the previous Marvel planning, the official is obviously more inclined to draw other characters from one character, such as the Avengers extending from Iron Man, X-Men (plot time) extending from Wolverine, Spider-Man extending from Spider-Man An extended Spider-Man universe and more.

Putting them together in the same story at the end, even the slightly marginalized Guardians of the Galaxy left a lasting impression on the Thanos battle in “Avengers: Infinity War‎” and “Avengers: Endgame” .

In contrast, Moon Knight has nothing to do with almost all the previous characters. I don’t think the MCU will only make one independent work, so how will they integrate this character into today’s film and television landscape?

Is it possible that this movie will be related to the characters in the “Doctor Strange” series and the “Mobius” next door in the future, after all, Marvel does have a magical supernatural power group “Midnight Sons”, which includes Ghost Rider, Blade , Doctor Strange, Vampire Morbius, Werewolf By Night, etc. In fact, almost all of these characters have had live-action film and television images.

And related to these characters, there is a familiar and unfamiliar character – Mephisto.

In the future, will the superhero team of the MCU also be divided into the relatively realistic Young Avengers and the surreal supernatural power department and the mage department?

Another point I have always liked is that no matter whether it is criticized as “politically correct” or not, superhero comics have always had a humanistic concern for social issues.

Taking Marvel as an example, in the context of superpowers, we can see the essence of X-Men about people on the edge, Steve Rogers about war and justice, Iron Man about wealth and anti-terrorism, and about ability. Spider-Man with responsibility, Black Panther about race and awakening, Black Widow about feminism and resistance, and more.

This Moon Knight is about the redemption, reconciliation and struggle of the mentally ill.

In the first episode currently broadcast, the MCU’s ambitions are about to come out. They are no longer willing to only complete the popcorn movie for family fun, but explore more ways to open it.

Just as “Harry Potter” went dark from its original children’s literature, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is looking for more possibilities.

“”Kicks off with a sitcom, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” takes on a realistic perspective, “Loki” looks at the world of “Avengers: Endgame” from a higher dimension, and “Hawkeye” draws the story of the original heroes the final chapter.

After the opening of the multiverse, we can see that the thriller themes that have not appeared in the past are becoming more and more, and the Marvel universe is becoming darker and darker.

At the same time, DC, which has always been criticized as “too dark”, has launched popcorn blockbusters such as “Shazam!‎” and “Aquaman”.

It’s hard to say which one is better, but we do expect them to be better and better.

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