Ten years ago Patrick Wilson‘s (The Conjuring franchise) Brian Harper, an astronaut, was disgraced after claiming to see something strange in space. Now, Brian, along with Halle Berry’s Jocinda Fowler, and John Bradley’s JC. is the world’s only hope after the moon leaves its orbit, threatening the complete destruction of the earth in Moonfall.
Directed by Roland Emmerich, who penned the script along with Harald Kloser and Spenser Cohen, Moonfall is a part disaster movie and part sci-fi flick and features out-of-this-world special effects including everything from giant waves taking out cities, pieces of the moon pelting the world, and amazing outerspace structures.
Here’s where the spoilers start. The reason the moon is out of orbit is that it isn’t made of rock as we believe. Instead, it is a superstructure built by the ancestors of man to find planets where they could resettle after a war with AI gone bad. Now, one of the giant, biomechanical creatures has found the structure and is absorbing its energy. It’s an interesting concept that we haven’t seen in a movie before, which is always a plus in my book. But things just get a bit too ridiculous.
Get comfy, this movie is over two hours long. Unfortunately, the first half of the movie is about setting up the story and introducing the characters in an attempt to build emotional ties, but it fails. It took a little too much time and paints Brian as a pathetic, not so likable guy which is counterproductive. The entire movie, Wilson’s character is stiff and comes across a bit awkwardly. As for Berry. an attempt was made to make her relatable and the filmmakers use the fact that she has a kid to leverage more sympathy, but like Wilson, she came across as stiff. While Wilson and Berry are listed as the lead characters and bring name recognition to the movie, but there is no doubt that John Bradley provided the stand-out performance. He put his whole heart into the character who is relatable and is someone you just can’t help but cheer for. He really nailed the soft-spoken, brilliant, a little goofy, big-hearted character, the movie’s real hero. I am not blaming the cast in any way. They have proven themselves time and time again. They did what they could with what they were given.
Another thing that an issue is that the timing is a bit off, delivering scenes that were too fast when they should have been more in-depth and slow scenes that should have been fast. I mean, we’re talking about the moon falling and destroying the earth, but it feels like there is no real sense of urgency. And why wasn’t the human tole more featured? I mean the world is coming to an end for god’s sake.
The fact that the movie has a happy ending is strange. It feels, wrong. Billions of people died, and much of the earth is trashed. Where’s the emotion? Even when the astronauts land back on earth it’s just like “Oh, hey. We’re back and by the way, the earth is saved.” Really? Talk about anti-climatic.
Moonfall is a sci-fi disaster flick that unfortunately is a bit of a disaster. It felt mechanical and void of emotion. Yes, it looks good. Sure, if you’re wanting a movie with great special effects and that’s it, watch it. But don’t expect an emotional experience.
Moonfall is out now on Digital and lands on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, On Demand, Blu-ray, and DVD on April 26, 2022, from Lionsgate.
Special Features:
Audio Commentary by writer-director Roland Emmerich and writer-producer Harold Kloser
Against All Odds – Making Moonfall
