Review : Moon Knight Episode 1

 While Moon Knight might not be my favorite Marvel character of all time, he is like a deep cut from an album no one appreciated until the past 5 years. That is if you read comics. He crosses over into books I read more though I have given his books a fair shake when they come out. I know Marc Spector pretty well. The challenge would be how to make him not come across like Marvel’s version of Bat-man , who wears white. They had to lean into the crazy. I approve of this in theory, how they executed it is another thing. The adherence to the Khonshu theme gets a thumbs up as Marvel has been apologetic in the past about Thor being a god. 

In some of the action scenes I was reminded of the “Quantum of Solace” , a more comedic James Bond. The losing time was a nice touch, but only for a first episode, if they went to the well too many of them it would not work. Overall Oscar could dial back some of the goofiness, just because someone is mentally ill does not mean they are so servile and meek.  Perhaps this is going to be ironed out and will prove just to be one of Spectors alters . I know this is not going to be set in the bigger picture of the Marvel Universe. I do not expect Blade or Daredevil to show up. 

I think there is promise, but it does seem they might be steering this in the wrong direction. If they continue with Oscar bubbling around like a Greatest American hero, then this will fall very flat. I get staying away from being like Bat-man but at some point we need to see what he is really about. This means not shying away from the costume. This means getting a good bit darker than what we have seen so far. I think by not using things like Werewolf By Night they are missing out on opportunities, hopefully the villain won’t fall into the mirror image of the hero trop they have worn out. Moonknight is going to become a household name now, lets hope it is the most accurate depiction and things are ironed out.

Film Review :' 'the Batman"

 Matt Reeves has a pretty clear vision of the Batman he wanted to bring to life. This allowed him to cast Robert Pattinson, as the Dark Knight, and focus on the early noir of the detective days. After all DC stand for Detective Comics. Comparisons to movies like "Seven" could be applied. The gimp version of the Riddler even worked. The less you saw of him the better. This is Batman year two so I f not to get too hung up over the first fight scene that saw just common gang members able to take more than one punch from Batman. Early buzz about the movie made claims that this was the best Batman movie ever on one side of the fence and that it was too woke on the other. In 2022 we have allowed a narrative to flourish that a rich white man would be the enemy, so that would be Bruce Wayne how did they handle this?  

The Riddler was a social justice warrior who wanted to bring this into the light. The politics of this film were much like the riddles the villain set up if you look into the layers the joke might be on you. We find that Thomas Wayne, whose relationship with Falcone leans onto the "Long Halloween" storyline. Wayne whose politics must be left leaning considering how much he gives to those in need, something that is even brought up by a political candidate who asks Bruce to follow in his father's footsteps, askes the gangster to have someone taken care of, which would align him more with the Clintons.  So who is the movie covertly mocking? Or is this an even handed message that all power corrupts no matter than hat they are wearing. 

It was when the Riddler's mask comes off that the movie falls apart, It almost recreates the scene with Heather Ledger and Bale in the second Nolan film. In fact this is where the movie loses the focus it started with and tries to hard to be a Nolan film. The climatic final battle, was too formulaic, We find Batman most in peril because he is hanging by one arm. This is a guy who swings around Gotham , climbing on buildings, he has been doing it for two years, do you mean to tell me he can not do a one arm pull up? Not buying it. Leading up to this i dozed off a few times, as the movie was that captivating, but the parts a slept through needed to be edited any way as it did not miss a beat with the storyline, much of the bloat could have been trimmed and this film given more focus. Lots of wasted potential .Pattinson was better than expected but as a physical prescience, even Keaton was better.  I wished the move kept the tone of the first 30 minutes.