Moon

[The Curious Squid]

Anybody looking for a good bit of Sci-fi this summer would do well to catch this while it's in the cinema.



Directed by Duncan Jones formerly known as Zowie Bowie (Yes, that's right it's David Bowie's son) and starring Sam Rockwell, Sam Rockwell and....err....Sam Rockwell? and the voice of Kevin Spacey as Gerty.

Moon is a refreshingly well made Science fiction movie after the scores of previous efforts like Sunshine and Star Trek that promised a lot and fell short of the mark.

The movie does draw heavily on the giants of Sci-fi that came before it. Most noticeably 2001: A Space Odyssey for a lot of the visuals and feel of the film as well as the unavoidable association that Gerty shares with Hal but where it could fall into the trap of becoming just another homage or rip off, Moon manages to power through on it's own strength avoiding already trite plot twists as the visuals are off set by the solid script, excellent score and the unsettling turns of the story.

Clint Mansell's accompanying score is just as good as you'd expect too, a brilliant addition to his previous efforts in Darren Aronofski's movies like π, Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain.

Minor Plot Details

Without giving too much away, the story of Moon takes place in the near future when the energy crisis on Earth leads to workers being sent to the moon to mine for He3 to use in fusion reactors back on our planet, a clean energy that solves issues from Global warming to energy demands and changes the politics on a global scale. The film picks up at the point where the protagonist, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell, The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy), is about to finish his 3 year long contract as the sole crew member of a mining base on the moon. Though, with only 2 weeks to go until he is reunited with his wife and daughter, Sam starts to have hallucinations of a girl and is involved in an accident. When he recovers he finds that the computer system installed in the base (Gerty) has taken away a lot of his liberties and has restricted his movement to just the base. Things get even stranger when he breaks out and finds an unconscious body that looks exactly like him in a crashed rover nearby.

The pace of Moon might be a bit too slow for some people, I'd compare it to the remake of Solaris in that it does take it's time to really get going but the pay off is worth it. Aside from a few niggling points this really is a brilliant addition to the genre.

[Animavore]

Sam Rockwell was in Hitch-hikers?

Don't remember that. I know him more commonly from The Green Mile.

[The Curious Squid]

Sam Rockwell was in Hitch-hikers?

Don't remember that. I know him more commonly from The Green Mile.

He played Zaphod in the movie. He does a great job in this one.

[tattuchu]

I saw it over the weekend. I liked it but it wasn't quite as good as I hoped it would be. Still, it was a refreshing bit of old school SF and not an action film with SF trappings, or a fucking soap opera whose SF setting seems incidental, as is so often the case with science fiction films and TV shows. This was a real SF film. Which was great. It's just...I dunno. It seemed rather pointless. It was a good enough story, with some nice surprises. But I didn't feel like the film had anything to say, really.
Don't get me wrong. It was a good film and I'm glad I saw it. Only I was expecting a bit more is all. I much prefer the SF film his dad was in, The Man Who Fell to Earth.

[The Curious Squid]

I think the fact that it is proper sci-fi as you mentioned is why I loved it as much. It's a film I'll definitely buy and watch repeatedly when it's released on DVD. I didn't go into it looking for a purpose and so was just happy to sit through it.

I haven't seen The Man Who Fell to Earth but I'll keep an eye out for it.

After watching this I sparked up a conversation about Sci-fi at a flat party on Saturday ( ) and suggested a couple of movies to people as well as got a few suggestions in return. There's one that sounds good called The Man from Earth have you seen that?

[Animavore]

Pete Rockwell wasn't in The Man Who Fell To Earth

[The Curious Squid]

Pete Rockwell wasn't in The Man Who Fell To Earth

he means the director's dad David Bowie

[Animavore]

Pete Rockwell wasn't in The Man Who Fell To Earth

he means the director's dad David Bowie

I thought he meant this guy http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2519091/

[The Curious Squid]

Looks like he got into the acting business after his son, that seems odd to me

[Animavore]

Looks like he got into the acting business after his son, that seems odd to me

Quite.

[The Curious Squid]

Looks like he got into the acting business after his son, that seems odd to me

Quite.

Indeed.

[AshtonBlack]

Looks good!!

I just wish there was a decent plex within 20miles of me!

[tattuchu]

I had to go to a small art house theater to see it. Fortunately I live right ear one. And it was such a nice cozy little place that I plan on going back on a regular basis.

Uh...you guys really need to see The Man Who Fell to Earth. Gosh

Thanks for the tip about The Man from Earth. I've never seen it, but it definitely sounds like something I'd very much like to see (I just looked it up).

[The Curious Squid]

I had to go to a small art house theater to see it. Fortunately I live right ear one. And it was such a nice cozy little place that I plan on going back on a regular basis.

Uh...you guys really need to see The Man Who Fell to Earth. Gosh

Thanks for the tip about The Man from Earth. I've never seen it, but it definitely sounds like something I'd very much like to see (I just looked it up).

If you haven't seen Primer then I thoroughly recommend that too.

And Sunshine up until they dock with the Icarus I, turn it off at that point and make up your own ending because I can guarantee that it will be way better than what they did with the story.

[Ilovelucy]

This is my film of the year so far, the first time in a long time that I walked out of a cinema feeling great about spending the admission fare. A lot of the cinema I've seen recently seems to be all style over substance, I started thinking I must be some kind of snob not to like some films that others were raving about. I love Moon though, it had just the right pace for me, lots of ideas, a bit of ambiguity and plenty of heart. Sam Rockwell works wonders in this and ensures that despite the great oldschool effects and the perfectly pitched atmosphere, it's his performance that keeps you invested emotionally in what's happening on screen.

I thought for a moment that the film had ended quite suddenly, but felt better about how it ended as I contemplated it. The ending just pointed out that the whole film was the payoff rather than some wham bam-moment at the very end. If there could be a fault of a lot of modern western cinema, it's a kind of fetishism about endings. I'm so sick of sitting through dramatic twists for the sake of a dramatic twist. I'll probably view it again at my local cinema before they pull it.