The Reel Rejects - REJECT RECAP: Moon Knight Ep 3 REVIEW & Credits Discussion - PODCAST

Episode Date: April 14, 2022

Hot off the finish of Episode 3, Greg, John, and Coy sit down to discuss all the latest developments in Marvel's Moon Knight series (Starring Oscar Isaac & Ethan Hawke). "The Friendly Type" finds Marc Spector & Steven Grant at odds once again as they attempt to beat Harrow and his followers to Ammit's tomb..but as matters escalate, and Khonshu demonstrates more of his earth-shaking power, the Gods of ancient Egypt intervene... We discuss spoilers, easter eggs, theories, comic book connections, and more! Watch the Reaction Highlights on YouTube or Stream Along with us at Patreon.com/TheReelRejects Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-reel-rejects/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Chipotle, for real. Well, welcome back. We are here today. Join by me, I'm Greg. I'm Johnald Humphrey. And Coy Chandra will be with us in just a couple minutes. He doesn't like to be here for the intros. He's an ass like that.

Anyway, guys, we're going to watch Moon Night episode three today. And then afterwards, we'll, of course, talk about it. So if you want to catch our reaction, that's up on the YouTube. YouTube.com slash the real wechicks. But here you'll only get the discussion because, let's face it, you can't, you just can't listen to a reaction. It's not the same. It's not the same. And sometimes I only, I do that to other reaction channels because why would I give them?

my undivided attention. Well, you don't want to steal a React face or something like that, you know? Yeah, I think I know what you're just trying to say. Anyway, absolutely. Yes, and. When this intro's done, you will hear us talking right when the episode is the credits talk. Do you understand where we're coming from here? Do you people get it?

We need to start at the beginning and explain how these podcasts are going to work to you. Cut the YouTube intro and the reaction. You get the review here. And then one day we'll truly up the ante on the sound quality now that I have a better grasp on what it is we're doing. Don't worry, new mic is in the mail. John's new mic has been in the mail for weeks. Supply chain issues, boy.

There's a movie being made about that mic. It's just the best mic. It's just a one mic. It's a one-of-a-kind. It's made of solid gold. I'm very fascinated with what this mic is that is coming here. And then we'll eventually have, yeah, we'll get there. We'll graduate.

We'll grow over time. We'll grow over time. That's our style. Start off shitty and then get less shitty. Slowly get less shitty. That's good. All right. Let's just do it.

And roll that intro. Yeah. Red hot comic book movie news. Shooting up your butthole. The weekly planet. Please don't sue us here. Yeah, no, no, yeah. Dense.

Dents. Are we talking about Eternals? Whoa, guys, I mean, there was a lot of non-interference from the gods, so we could be. It's true. Are we still doing your credit joke? We're not doing the credit joke. We've got to do the credits. I do like that they change up the credits every time.

Yeah, every episode. And they also change up the music, too. I'm really curious we're getting Jake now that we have a mysterious third identity. Do you think he can buy that little Conchew statue? Within a week. Oh, yeah. That's coming. Murch.

I also like that Mr. Knight is now just representative of the other identities, Moon Knight. They can kind of play with that to make him less of a, it wasn't a punchline, but it was a joke in how he was used, and now they can evolve that. And that's what I was hoping they do with him. Oh, just in that moment alone, Stephen's necessity really came into the fold this time. Yeah, and Mr. Knight was a necessity because the control. I don't think there's a post-credit scene. Probably not post-credit scene. But we should wait.

I should see the way for safety. Well, did you guys like it? I liked it. I had a great time. Part of me was a little worried that maybe we would get into the middle and it would start to sag, but it did not. It had one of the crazier fight scenes

I think we've seen it in a Disney Plus show. Many stabbings. I also was a little worried that it was moving at such a fever pace at the top that the sag metaphor is solid. I don't know if I'd get exhausted by it. Like, I was worried either dip or it'd be overwhelming, like two months.

But somehow I'm just tired in a good way. I do kind of wish the pacing of this was more like how it was in the last. The first two was definitely a different, more controlled pace. Well, I think the first, the last 15 minutes, 10 to 15 minutes of this episode, like when Layla and him are driving and they're talking and then they go to the sands. That's when I was like, I kind of wish this was a little bit more of the pacing for the rest of the episode because they did jam pack it a lot to the point where so much was just happening.

He's chasing down people. We don't know exactly who they were chasing. For 10 minutes, I thought we actually watched the wrong thing that came back. Yeah, so there's a time jump, and then it's just like, whoa, we're doing a born movie all of a sudden, and it's so, there's, it's moving at such a whiplash pace. You have, like, everything that Arthur Harrow going on, and then Mark Spector, and then when they're like, oh, now we're going to meet the gods, and now we're dealing with this trial, and it was just like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and then now we're doing this, like, we need this, a handsome dude. Handsome guys here. With the map, I'm like, okay, this is a, so it got to the point where. where I found myself just paying attention to get information and I wasn't really affected by as much.

Like, whereas the last two really gave me a lot of feels, but I think the last, like, 15, 20 minutes of this episode really made up for how I was feeling towards the first half of this one. I would have preferred seven episodes and had that be like one and a half episodes. Like I would have preferred, yeah. So like I would have preferred the show been a little longer overall. I mean, obviously we don't know how it's going to land, but like that was a lot to digest, no postcode. But I don't post credit. It's interesting because I really love the first two episodes a lot. And this was like, I was easily my, out of the three so far,

this is easily the one I would rank third out of them all. But there's still a lot to appreciate, I'd say. I don't know each apology. I don't know the history of it all. My most knowledge comes from Indiana Jones and the Mummy. That's all you need. My one year in social studies where I really paid attention because I like those movies. That's about as far as it goes.

See movies are important. They give you to pay attention in history class. It might inspire you to pay attention and get a good grade once in a while. I vividly remember that. I was a period of social studies. Yeah, it worked. Cyrus and Anubis, it was great. Any teacher at home, bring in that VCR combo.

Scroll that in. So I liked getting a lot of that lore in history. That's what I mean. I think there's a lot to appreciate there. And I think the set design is really cool. The way they've evolved Conchew as well. Like, here was the first time I really. got the sense that this guy while a little bit twisted and how he's like i really want that layla girl

you get a sense of actual care from him in this one especially in that like those last moments the most consistent factor that i find really strong is you know oscar isacic interacting with oscar is that to me is easily the strongest one we'll get to like our theories and speculation on what's going on a little bit of involving laylum perhaps the third personality but one i know we went out of order you're supposed to be the you're supposed to be the one that kicks us off King. Kicks the ball. Yeah. No, I mean, I agree with your assessment in that this does feel like they kind of crammed stuff in. Like, it was all interested. Like, it's one of those situations where for me, I was like, I was interested in everything and I was pleased with everything that we

were getting. But yeah, it was like this whole, you know, trial seems like it ought to be an expanded sequence or something like that. It's funny because you have so many reasons to go, Indiana Jones or the Mummy. And there are shots that make me think of that. But yeah, This was much more of sort of like a, you know, foot chase heavy, Paul Greengrassy style thing. And I like that stylistic shift. I feel like it's within the personality of this show. And it lends credence to the whole, like, we're going to go a little more hardcore. I'm a little bit distracted when it is like, yeah, they're throwing down on harsher choreography that still has no blood in it.

You know, so there is a certain... We're going to have blood as long as it's a cut to. I don't see the blood come out. It's weird. It was like it's more effective to me in the first episode when you have Stephen blackout and then come back with the blood all over the scarred his hand. Yeah, and it's like, you know, obviously

the tradeoff is you get the blood because you don't get the violence in that situation. But, you know, I mean, that's just a little thing that did kind of stick out at me as I'm curious to see how the MCU going forward, especially in these shows, will bridge that gap because I don't think they've fully

managed it here. The character stuff was really great. And from the last episode, I remember us being like, I don't know, really. If I wanted to see behind the curtain of Arthur Harrow with, you know, his sinister intent the way he drains that homeless guy. But I thought the way they brought it back around with him in this episode with his scenes, like it brought it back to that place of authentic pathos that comes from him. That whole monologue he gives at the end about like, you know, if this mission I'm on, you know, I owe my conviction and, you know, the strength and the burden to you. Like, I thought that brought him back to a pretty interesting spot and it helped to alleviate.

this sort of repetitive structure that this would have in the sense that you have mark and lela you know scrambling to get somewhere and they do and then hey here comes arthur harrow he's pretty chill about it and he's in control and that happens you know a few times but i thought that when they really settled into scenes that was when the episode would sing i totally agree with the arthur harrow stuff i'm back to being a hundred percent interested and immersed in his character and ethan ock is crushing this very unlikable likable charming like every action he's doing is impossibly evil but he's so he's so Charismatic and interesting, you're like, tell me more about your weird crazy girl. So that's like really impressive work. And also, I don't know have ever seen work with a DID study quite like what Oscar Isaac's doing because not only do we see visual transformations with just like eyebrow use and all those things from one personality to another, but when he's taken over by Kanshu and the voice of Kanchu feels like it's bursting out of him and he's like getting exhausted by like being overwhelmed by this voice, that's another complete entity and another complete acting style.

The work in this is insane. And Layla, we got that whole opening scene where we hadn't really had a lot of time with Layla one-on-one. It was really smart to open with that in Dearest to her. That way we're more invested in their relationship

throughout this episode. So if you only know Mark and Stephen, you don't really worry about Layla's relationship. By the end, we're like, man, Layla's falling for Stephen and falling out of love with Mark at the same time. And now we care about Layla

because of that one eight-minute scene. So the structure worked for me. But if this episode was an hour and a half or if this was spread across two, I would have preferred it. Just because I do feel like when you eat a sandwich that has too many toppings, some bites are more delicious than others. And there were moments in this that felt like a too salty bite, and I wanted the bites to be spread out. It's a really great metaphor.

You can use that before? No, I just literally thought of it in this moment. That's like a perfect metaphor for this episode. Too many, too many toppings on my sandwich. Yeah. Also, I'm hungry. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of, I'm pretty hungry, too. I'm sure there's a lot of people who probably like really, like, there's their favorite, and it's totally fine.

Yeah, I think there's a lot to appreciate. I think the action was cool. I prefer more of the close-ups on Moon Night when he's fighting. Because sometimes it's moving out way too fast for me. Like when he got to the roof, I'm like, what the fuck? He was just there like a second ago. I also think this would have been a really hard script to direct because I imagine Muhammad looked at the script and went,

okay, we're going to cover this today? Like, it's just like the sheer volume of what this episode needed to do because we haven't seen, you know, four, five, and six. And, like, we haven't seen where this goes and what they had to connect from blank to blank to. But I can't imagine this was not intimidating. No. So, like, it's a really impressive feat from the actor's standpoint, director standpoint, production design standpoint, costume design standpoint.

One of my favorite scenes of this whole series so far is what they just did at the end with Conchue and Mr. Knight, literally going back through time. But I can't imagine looking at the script starting with Layla and ending with that and being like, this is an episode of television. It feels like it was also quite the bite to take when looking at a six-episode series, which makes me really intrigued what four, five, and six are because if this was to three, what is the rest of the show? I haven't lost faith in it because normally,

with these shows, I'm like, okay, episode one and two were kind of slow, but three's when it gets good. So it's kind of an interesting effect when you're like, yeah, three is okay, but one and two were great. So it's like, it makes you still like heavily invested. I'm like A, A, A, B, plus so far. Like, it's still high for me, but it was just a slight, and that was just overwhelmed, which a lot of people also like,

this is gonna, I mean, I'm sorry to us, but we're a little older. Like maybe there's the next generation who's more of the TikTok mindset where they're like, just gotta need stimulant. Yeah, I need more at all the time, move, move, move, move. There's a very plausible reason that like Disney making a show that's this dense might have felt the compulsion you have this much in an episode because a lot of people are on their

phones when they watch TV, a lot of people are scrolling, a lot of people, you can't with this episode. So maybe there is something to, like, when we look back at 60s and 70s movies, the pacing is like watching paint dry for me 80% of the time. I struggle. This might be us just getting old and this is the new standard and we're just seeing it and feeling like overwhelmed for the first time. Like I don't know what the standard operating procedure for content and like amount

and time is gonna be in five years, but it could just be like, world. Yeah, maybe, Coy. That's, maybe that's what it is. I'm saying, younger people might enjoy it more, but it's still a B plus for me personally. It's still like one of the better Marvel shows so far. I think with the fighting, it was interesting.

I like the close-ups on it more because that's gonna look the more real. Practical to, yeah. There were parts of it. I'm like, oh, that does feel like bad Affleck in the warehouse fight and certain shots, certain moments, moments when he is pounding on them sometimes though i am curious why some shots of moon nights of outfit there are some shots from like i get why that part looks cg i but why does this other part look cg i so i don't really understand the mechanics i know they do these like behind the scenes on their disney plus shows i'm curious to know why some shots are like so overtly cg when i when i

doesn't feel like it doesn't feel like it necessitates it but i and it pulls me out because i feel like with conchue they've like mastered how to do conchu in like broad daylight or night they know how to really like mask him shadow him in to the point where it looks so good and even like the last effects you know with the with the stars and stuff i thought it was beautiful the bull that looked like straight out of the comic it was amazing to look at mr knight always looks fantastic but then moon night sometimes i'm going why does he look so computer at times when i he doesn't seem like he needs to i like the fight a lot It definitely, like you said, more stabby, stabby than most of the... More stabby, stabby, there we go.

Also, inventive. We've seen thousands of fights. I've never seen a horse spike fight. So I like having a new style of fight because the comics are able to do so many different. Also, also, I didn't even... This is the highlight of the episode for me, and it's a silly small thing, but because my comic book love. They did the thing here that Eternals failed that. You guys know I love Eternals. I saw you.

I knew it was coming. I even looked. In Eternals, they made a movie that felt removed from the MCU but had to go like, Remember the MCU with a couple lines of dialogue that for me felt forced and actually like a took me out instead of in. This mentions a location within the MCU in a context

that makes sense and it goes, hey, we're gonna keep this very unique tone. The show feels nothing like a lot of the MCU, but because the word Madreport in a sentence that fits in context is said in the comics that would have been bold. Like you would have just felt that little like connectivity and therefore this feels like

the comic version of a shared universe more than the MCU. The MCU feels like the movie shared universe This feels like reading a comic and hearing like, oh, I get it, and then flip the page. Like, I thought that was the perfect delivery for Madreport and for the MCU at whole. You know, in the last episode, there was a book that had Asgard on it and Wakanda. You know, in the first episode, when they hit that bus, the bus had the GRC on it, which is the thing they mentioned about like monitoring stuff in phase four.

Little details. But Madripor is out loud and cool. Yeah. You know what I think that what might have, the reason why the emotional effect in my mind it felt like it was moving too fast? There was a lot of new characters in this episode. Yeah, absolutely. Like, it feels like a new setup.

That's what I was like, did I miss something last? And I was like replaying the previous thing on my head. I was like, no, that's where I left off. Like, it's just like, did I miss something in a week? Yeah. That is a good point because it didn't hit me at the time. And this episode gave me part of what I was hoping for last time, which was, okay, now we're going to do the Mark with Stephen Breaking Through episode.

And yeah, it didn't hit me until now, but you are dealing with so many new places and people the whole time. To quickly touch back on that thing that you said about the fighting, I think that too goes against the theory that this is all in his head or that there's some kind of alternate reality that we're experiencing here because the more he teleports around and the more other people acknowledge that, the more it feels like, and even things like the jackal or her being aware of the suit, it seems like this is a tangible thing that is actually magical and is actually happening.

It hit me during this that this has two themes that are like really kind of cyclical throughout the MCU. So even though it's not like reference heavy, it is dealing with how do we handle preventative crime fighting and also God's not wanting to interfere with the follies and squabbles of man. Those converge here in a really heavy way and it's like we had that in civil war with the whole, you know, like eyes in the sky kind of thing and we've watched the Shield Season 7 right now and that's all about the past and hey, should we take the shot in the past if it means preventing blah blah blah in the future? Like there's so much about preventative crime in the MCU, and I'm now also waiting for them to take that one step further because we have

this format to do that in, and I thought, you know, there were some good arguments toward that within this episode on display, and that was some of the strongest stuff they did here. We don't often talk about the macro of our world in relation to the MCU, but bringing a preventative crime, and something I've been thinking about a lot in our fiction is obviously we're living in an age of, like, needing the moral compass of heroes in our fiction because our world feels like it's crumbling at all times, and we're seeing as we get older, more and or evil go unchecked in all of our governments and all of our formats aren't actually doing any of the things that we were raised to think they were to do. But we're entering the age of like recording everything in a very Orwellian sense.

We literally film everything to the point where there's going to be a time when the 90s and 80s and earlier are going to be considered prehistoric because there isn't going to be an objectivity. I'm sorry, a subjectivity. Everything is going to be an objectivity. Everything is going to be recorded. So it's going to be like, this is true. This is not. But then very soon thereafter, there's going to be a level of deep fakes and a level of unreality where we're not going to actually know what. is real on record or not because we're already getting deep fake visual and voices that are almost photo realistic. So we're going to have this short window where objectivity is going to take over and what's that going to look like with preventative crime when everything is so point, shoot, true, false, and what is that gray scale of morality going to be versus law because so many laws are

so updated with the current structure of reality? This is a great philosophical point. Because Marvel addresses that in each of their films like we're saying, but we don't look at that in our day-to-day, we don't reflect that as much, but this show doing that through something so elevated as Egyptian gods from historic times. It's really interesting to look at how you feel about certain things, how you feel about Harrow, how you feel about Mark how you feel about Stephen in relation to how it affects your day-to-day life of what you perceive these laws and realities and rules as. Do that make any sense? You got that all from this one episode?

I got that all from life, Greg. I got it all from life. That is a great like societal point of view. I think at its core with the MCU and in this show in particular really focuses on when its characters is about self-acceptance. That's probably the top theme, I think. Like, this whole thing with Mark and Stephen is, they're at odds with one another, and Mark clearly doesn't like himself and feels ashamed. Stephen feeling like he's not good enough. And if you look at all our other characters in the MCU, a lot of times,

their arc is learning to be like, you know what? I am enough. I can do this for me. Whatever my affliction might be is actually also part of my strength. And that's so comic booky. Like, that's one of the things I like about comic books is your weakness is often your strength and the things that make you unique or the thing that makes you strong. and I mean, I think in all of our lives, once we accepted more of our weird shit,

we became better at our jobs and our lives and our personal lives and our relationships. And I think that the Marvel characters are very good at going like, hey, X-Men, what makes you a freak is your strength? Hey, Spider-Man, that, like, blah, blah, blah. And I think Moon Knight accepting that Stephen is the strength in some circumstances and Mark is the strength in others. When Mark literally kills people in Stephen's little dweeb, those strengths are really incredible to have with two characters competing for a body.

I do got to say, Stephen did kind of annoy me a little bit, when Mark was fighting off those people. Yeah, he needed to let go, yeah. And Steven was like interfering. Yeah, let let go and I'm like, dude, what are you doing? There's the one time I got, I know some people are back and forth with Stephen. Oh, is he an annoying character or not? A lot of people actually like fight about that.

I've seen in the comments. I don't find him annoying. I like him a lot. I love him. I actually like him more than Mark. I think he's a much more amusing personality than Mark. Like, Mark is, I don't know, getting more Mark in this episode. I enjoyed him.

I think Oscar Isaac does a great job, but let's face it, his character, his portrait trail is like it's a little bit more straightforward. It's about what you'd expect. Mark's a hammer and Stephen's more of a fine-tooth comb. Like they're different skill sense. No, yeah, a thousand percent. I think that's what works best with Mark is when he's interacting with Stephen is the complement of the personalities. Right. That's why I love those scenes so much is because of that. But when you don't have like Mark really interacting with Stephen or consue for that matter, I don't find Mark anywhere near as engaging as I do find Stephen particularly. Although whenever he is dawning Moondon, I'm like, hell yeah, let's go, Moon Night.

That's great. Now we've got to talk really quick. A couple of theories. You might want to turn off the video now in case, just a couple of theories here. One, Jake Lockley, the cab driver personality, who's more of like the guy on the stuff. It would stand a reason that it could be Jake Lockley as that third personality. Jake Lockley is more of like the dude who goes on the streets, gathers information and whatnot, you know, walks amongst the people. And so I could see him being like, yeah, he's out in a back.

out and this is like in the daylight because I was like a little bit stricken by oh wow Mark's just out there in the daylight meffing people up on rooftops right now okay cool so I could see it being Jake Lockley I think Jake might be our lead for the last third I think Jake might come in at the end that'd be surprising yeah well think about how like we talked about how she doesn't really know Mark Stephen doesn't feel like he has a lot of history we don't know the stuff with Stephen and his mom and the later skater stuff all those things and then these blips first introduced the idea of there being someone else what if these two are in Jake's head. True. It's interesting because Mark brought up a point about like, I thought I was

fine for like the last few years, but only recently I started breaking. So it seems like Mark has been aware of his other personalities for a while, which would be comic accurate. But then he suppressed them to the point where they forgot. Yeah. Or like Stephen Grant forgot about Mark and what's time perception when you're trapped in the mirror and like how long is anything for another personality? So I think that could be the case. With Layla, it seems like that she would be. be the daughter of, because in the comic, around the time before Marks, when Marks Macra's just mercenary, and then there's a guy in the Lemire Smallwood run, they paint him to look like Sam Neal from Jurassic Park.

He gets killed. I don't think that character was Layla, but I think they would probably adopt her to be here. That would probably be why Mark is like, I feel guilty, shut up. Maybe she doesn't know he was involved. Yeah, I think he killed Sam Neal. You think so? Yeah, I think Mark killed. killed her dad? I feel like you'd be

on the same mission, but maybe... I think he killed him. Wow. I think that's what Harrow's holding. I think Harrow knows. Or he's... Would they go that far? Or... Or maybe he's somehow responsible in an indirect way, or maybe he wasn't able to save him or something. That's why I'm saying he was part of it. He was like

there what had happened. I think he murked him. I feel like it would be... He's probably wearing a mask. I feel like it would be an interesting challenge if they actually let him be the one who did it. Because then what would the conversation be about her loving Stephen and not Mark. Because Mark killed her dad, but Stephen didn't. Same body, though.

How do you forgive the body of a man? That's a, there's a phyllis. There's that question. If you've got multiple personalities, somebody's a common problem. People who date people with the idea. Yeah. Like you said, polyamory's weird.

It gets complex. You know, all your polyamory in a one-stop shot. Mark Specter, Stephen Grant, Rick Lockley at all. It's like different too. Like they'd be like a gentle lover, and Mark could probably be more aggressive. One might be a subservient.

might be a dom, they probably have different kinks. You know, that body is... Steve would be like, I don't know what to do, right now. I like that Stephen can hang, Mark can't. Do I call, I can't get up wrong there. I think Stephen has got all that geeky, like, stamina, and Mark's got too much PTSD where he's actually the struggle. I think Stephen better than Mark.

And, no, but Jake, Jake cleans up more than anybody. Jake's the back of that cab all day. He knows what he's doing. That's why you need Jake the second third of the show, the third of the show. He knows all the good alleyway. I want the second half of the show should be like eyes wide, shut. Egypt. Gotta send this to Disney, let him know what we want. Make it happen. You know, when you're

tired and I'm tired, we perform at two very different energy levels. It's fascinating. You're ramping up and over to not die. You're still remarkably sharp going. I go up and up in order to not fall asleep. It's impressive. I wish I had some food here. Guys, sandwiches, overstuffed. What'd you think? Leave our thoughts down below. Hey, we'll catch you guys soon. Check us on Patreon. Thank you.