I saw some Marvel stuff last week, so let’s take a looksie.
Okay, I’m watching Marvel TV shows again. I was recommended to check out Moon Knight, and the show just ended so I figured why not slot it in next to that Doctor Sherlock into the Multiverse. (I was also recommended Peacemaker, but just haven’t got around to it yet, and I’m not sure how many of you want a review on that now?) Moon Knight is a superhero I have definitely heard of, but until now I knew nothing about, beside the name and he looks pretty neat. Maybe if I wasn’t suffering from Marvel burnout, I probably would have been excited for this thing, otherwise I’m just intrigued, because basing on what I hear Moon Knight is quite unique.
The show peaks in the first episode, which isn’t particularly a good thing, but I’ll explain why in a bit. Steven Grant is our lead, played by Oscar Isaac, who pulls off a very impressive Martin Freeman impression. Steven is even an awkward single guy, so he’s a perfect re-creation of the roles Martin Freeman always plays, splendid. Anyway on to the story, strange stuff starts to happen to Steven when he suddenly wakes up in weird places, and even starts to see and hear freaky things. It’s great stuff, being as we’re as completely in the dark as Steven is, and it’s just great television. We do eventually learn that Steven has another darker personality called Marc Spector, who is also played by Oscar Isaac, minus the Martin Freeman impression, but he takes Steven’s body out for a joy ride to do cool awesome stuff. Like murder people, such as in the best action scene in the show, where Steven is driving away from bad guys and just as they’re about to kill him, he blacks out and everyone is suddenly all dead.
While the rest of the show is pretty fun Marvel stuff, but it never tops the creative fun weird excitement of the pilot. Once they go to Egypt in episode 3, I felt like we’re on autopilot for the entire time as just treads the waters of what every other Marvel show or movie does. I guess there is some weird stuff towards the end, but it’s more a distraction, because the plot never deviates from stop the clearly evil guy from destroying the planet. At least Moon Knight has the courtesy to tell us it’s another generic Marvel show early on in the show, unlike WandaVision, which waits till the final episode! Besides the great set-up there isn’t much to praise other than Oscar Issac’s performance and the character of Moon Knight. It’s Split meets Batman, which is a unique take on the typical superhero that I enjoyed seeing their development throughout this show. One final problem I have is the same I had with WandaVision’s conclusion, that been this show lacks any finality. I won’t share what happens, but I don’t think it’s a spoiler that Moon Knight is here to stay and they even tease as to where the story might go next. Problem is it’s the series finale, to a mini-series and they apparently have no interest in making a season 2. This would only get a pass if this show wasn’t on Disney+, where they have a bottomless pit of money, to keep this show going until the Simpsons end.
Overall Moon Knight is pretty fun, I guess.
Doctor Strangelove into the Multiverse of Madness, came out recently, and sorry this is a little late as I didn’t get around to seeing this until Mother’s Day. I didn’t see the film with my Mum, because she is too cool for these stupid comic book movies, unlike me. This movie was really popular on the internet because the word Multiverse is in the title, meaning cool people should rock up in this, not because it’s a sequel to 2016’s Doctor Strange, it’s just a coincidence that they’re in the same movie. Then when the movie came out the Marvel fans got really butthurt, because Sam Raimi forgot to add the cool people into his Multiverse movie, starring Doctor Strange. Right my perspective, I was not overly wrapped in the first Doctor Strange movie, as it’s one of the more forgettable MCU movies, for that reason alone I wasn’t particularly excited to see Multiverse of Madness. That being said I enjoy Strange in other Marvel movies, and some factors. I was curious to see what this one had to offer and what I got was nothing worth really fussing over.
Another reason people were hyping this movie into the ninth dimension, is because Sam Raimi is directing this movie and is known for making the original Spider-Man trilogy, which has become a classic in recent times. His style of film making is present, but most people seem to forget that this is a MCU movie, and it has to go through a filter, that meets their boring standard. There is certainly some creative uses of horror in this movie, and this comes out through Wanda, who this time is actually a villain, unlike in WandaVision, where she was just misunderstood. (Even though in my opinion, she totally should have been.) Raimi makes Wanda actually pretty scary in this, and she uses her magic and mind trickery to completely destroy people it’s really cool and it gets bloody too, which is a cherry on top. There is also some creative camera trickery with reality warping when Strange travels through dimensions. As I said, it is a MCU movie so don’t expect any of this to get too wild, watch Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, if you want your mind blown.
There’s a story, but it was so muddled and confusing, that I kind of tuned out a bit. There is a loads of McGuffins and Strange experiences some stuff, but yeah none of that is very important. Wanda’s story was the only thing I was really interested in, perhaps mainly because WandaVision did a lot of the heavy lifting, but also Elizabeth Olsen just carries this mediocre movie. Her storyline is pretty much a repeat of what she experienced in WandaVision as her grief has still blinded her good nature, but because we have another superhero in this movie, she’s all good to be the villain now. As I stated before I enjoy the villainous side of Wanda, however because of subpar writing she does come off as a generic MCU villain, who is totally wrong and needs Strange to show them who’s right. Wanda deserves better.
What else is there to say, other than talk about Wanda. Strange and little star girl, not the best pairing. I much prefer Strange and Wong. Can you imagine how much better this movie would have been if it was just Strange and Wong chasing Wanda through the multiverse. Strange was able to summon every Spider-Man movie villain into his reality last time, yet now the only the way to travel through realties is using this star girl when she’s upset. The reason why I don’t really mention the plot, is because I think most of it makes not much sense. Perhaps it’s me not remembering the last Doctor Strange movie or it’s me misunderstanding the exposition dumps, either one sounds rather dull to me. I guess I gotta talk about the cameos, because that’s apparently a real gripe some people have. As someone who is more interested in seeing a good movie, these cameos were not too bad. They don’t serve much of a point, in comparison to No Way Home, however I feel the best one is already told to you in the trailers. The MCU trailer department took a note from Morbius, and also wanted to remove any surprises, you might have been concerned with seeing. (Don’t worry the end credits are left to be surprised at, the MCU haven’t sunk that low yet.)
In the end, not as good as the last Spider-Man movie, but a movie that was definitely fun to watch, if you feel as dead inside as me. I felt a little shocked the other day that it’s been 10 years since the first Avengers has been out. That’s how long I’ve been watching the MCU and I really feel it.
No more Marvel stuff for me, until Thor four, comes out. Sorry Blog Complainer, signing out.
