Rich Man’s 2001: A Space Odyssey: I don’t love Kubrick and I find most of 2001 pretty slow. Moon’s by no means a perfect movie, but it’s got thrills and is definitely a more fun movie.
★★★★☆
This week I watched a 90 minute Twilight Zone-esque movie called Moon. The opening monologue tells you that in 2035 Lunar Industries built a station on the moon to mine Helium-3, an alternative fuel, from moon rocks, ending the oil crisis (phew!). The movie stars Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell, an astronaut working for a mining/energy company in the future currently nearing the end of his 3 year contract. Besides a few people on screens, Sam is the only person in the movie. You’re going to be spending a lot of time with him, so buckle up. The film also features the soothing voice of Kevin Spacey as Sam’s automated assistant. Also, the film is directed by Duncan Jones, son of the late, great David Bowie.
The film is a psychological thriller. Not everything is as it appears to be on the moon and Sam and the viewers are slowly shown the true nature of reality. Sam Rockwell does a good job acting the film, although there are a few moments when I didn’t believe his responses to the situations that he was put in. When I would have shown strong surprise or horror or confusion, Sam instead displays a quiet curiosity. Because of what I felt was misplaced emotions, there are a few weird moments, but it might have just been me.
The story isn’t perfect either. As a fan of science fiction writing/TV/movies, I can tell you that you won’t see anything new here, but it is definitely put together well. The story is cohesive and doesn’t have any major holes. It also avoids a common critique I have with sci-fi: Confusion for confusion’s sake. At no point during the movie is the writer trying to trick the viewer. The plot is told clearly and never did I feel like the writer resorted to a deus ex machina. My biggest critique of Moon is that I feel like it blew it’s big surprise early. For me, the emotional climax happened around the 50 minute mark. Since it wasn’t supposed to be the climax, Sam Rockwell didn’t really act the way he should during a climax and I never really got that emotional high you get at the conclusion of a good story.
The movie was done on a budget, but doesn’t feel like it. One of the things I felt it did really well was show the future in a realistic light. There’s new technology, but it still has limitations. Maintenance is still slow to repair broken things. Sam has written post-its and other notes on his control panel. The future shown by Moon feels lived in and the world-building is effortless. It’s similar to much of the praise heaped upon Her. When you’re trying to build a futuristic world, it can be hard to create new technology. Many times, the writer will be forced to shoehorn a clunky voiceover or exposition to explain how stuff works. I’ve always found Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison to be amazing at world-building, but other good examples would include Minority Report and Star Wars (duh).
Overall, the movie’s got an exciting and interesting, but not perfect story. The acting is good, but suffers in a few spots from some odd personal choices by the actor/director. But I think it’s definitely a movie that everyone should see, especially if you’re the type of person who enjoys shows like The Twilight Zone or Planet of the Apes.
You can rent Moon, but if you want it for free, you’ll have to violate copyright law.
Next week, Josh is reviewing The Thief and the Cobbler. I watched Kiki’s Delivery Service with him, so this is sort of a payback. The movie is basically Aladdin, but the animation is really, really beautiful. It’s all hand drawn and had the record for longest time in development hell, 31 years. One of its versions is available on Netflix, but I recommend the Recobbled cut.
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