Ok so if you ladies and gentlemen want a tonal whiplash you've come to the right place! Now I'm not saying this about the sci-fi mindbender of a film Moon. Instead, I am saying this in regards to the comparison in tone of this week's old film review in the form of Moon and last weeks' feature, the 1992 zombie cult classic Braindead aka Dead Alive. But enough dallying around, lets get into this shindig!
Thanks again to the Sussex Sci-Fi and Horror society as I saw this film during their most recent meeting.
Image source: https://superior-realities.com/2015/03/14/retro-reviews-in-time-and-moon/
So let me start off with what I believe is the best part of the movie. The performance of Sam Rockwell as the film's main character Sam Bell. Sam (the character not the actor obviously), is a maintenance and collection astronaut for an inter-global energy company called Lunar Industries. When we start the film we see and hear him explain how Lunar Industries uses people such as himself to collect a newly-found fuel called Helium 3 from the moon and transport it in shuttles back to Earth to provide nearly three quarters of the Earth's renewable energy. What makes Rockwell's performance so good here is that he portrays Sam as an everyday Joe who is waiting for his 3-year work contract on a moon base to end. But while doing this, he also displays concern and clear confusion when something unfamiliar happens to Sam at different points throughout the film.
What makes this particularly exceptional is not only that Rockwell performs this action well, but that he does it with minimal contact with other characters to work off of. The only other major character in the film is a slightly unsettling but still friendly and likeable robot called GERTY (Voiced by Kevin Spacey). Considering that GERTY is only able to portray emotion through different smiley face emoticons on its primary computer screen and that this is the only other major character that Sam interacts with, Rockwell's portrayal of clear and different emotions must be lauded.
However, in regards to the acting talent on display in this movie, I do feel that Kevin Spacey is somewhat underutilised. Now this isn't to say he does a bad job as his performance as the robot GERTY is well-delivered. This performance also helps to help give Rockwell deliver a suitably mysterious and at times both optimistic and cautious atmosphere through his acting and interaction with the environments around him. And on top of this, Spacey has undeniably proven himself as a capable actor in numerous roles throughout his career in video games, movies and television. But I still can't shake the feeling that his expressive and atmospheric voice is a tad underutilised or even wasted in portraying an emotionless robot who is a sporadic support character. Still, two very solid performances from both Spacey and Rockwell.
Image source: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/182767-robots-that-sweat-breathe-and-get-goosebumps-to-manipulate-your-emotions
The other main pro of the film that I want to point out is the direction of the film and the camerawork, particularly in mood-setting. With the film being set in just a few rooms and locations on and around the moon base that Sam works on, there is not a great variety of environments to build different atmospheres and moods upon. Therefore, this task falls upon the shoulders of the actors, camerawork and directing in the case of Moon. And while I would not say that the directing or camerawork are as proportionally good as the acting they are both still very well executed and realised. The camerawork consists of a number of still shots albeit from differing angles when a change of mood is about. Some spaces and familiar rooms around the set have consistent camera angles so when a change of camera angle or composition happens in one of the set areas you get the feeling that something unusual is afoot. This is done very well in Moon towards the aim of amplifying the mood and atmosphere that the film is going for at a given moment. In turn, the direction helps this camerawork and the actors perform to a high-level with minimal environment variety and budget size.
However, that all being said, I cannot deny that the contemporarily small budget for this film really shows in negative ways, especially in regards to the special effects. Now to be fair, the film does look very well for a film made in 2009 on a even-then-very-small sci-fi film budget of just $5,000,000 USD(Approximately). But despite this, the special effects are easily the worst part of the film and while Duncan Jones (Director and co-writer) efforts to stretch the budget economically are lauded and admirable, the film's budgetary strains clearly show in the end product. Without going too far into spoilers, there is one moment where a buggy crashes into a pylon on the moon and the resulting effect of the pylon falling over and the sparks that come out looks like a pirated 4th-rate console game from the original Xbox or PS2. This fortunately does not spread to every aspect of the film such as set design, costumes or the aforementioned camerawork but it is clearly there and noticeable.
Another major criticism I have is that the directing, while good overall, is not flawless and some moments of character interaction and scene development feel forced especially towards the end of the film. Again, without going too far into spoiler territory, Sam figures through a number of occurrences on the station where he works that something is afoot with Lunar Industries and his own posting on the moon. He comes to figure out what this really is later on in the film but some of the moments where he realises and discovers secrets are either poorly-conveyed, stretched out way too long or are just reiterating pieces of information that the audience already know. This isn't helped when a major plot reveal is told to us not through clever storytelling but by GERTY unloading a horrendous exposition dump that falls flat like West Ham United for a spot in the Europa League or Liverpool in the Premier League title race.
Image source: http://www.moviegno.me/review-moon-2009/
In conclusion, I think that Moon has a lot of issues in terms of how its third act is presented, its cheap look and its somewhat inconsistent character interaction and direction. It seems a shame that the cheapness is a downside considering that last week's old film review subject Braindead/Dead Alive achieved a good look with a budget that was also small compared to its contemporaries of the time. However, this is still a film worth giving a look if you're into introspective sci-fi films or movies with good plot twists and direction. Even if these aren't necessarily high up on your priorities for enjoying a good movie, I would still recommend seeing it for the top-quality acting performances by Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey who really save this film along with the great camerawork. Especially if this is on for cheap on a video service like Amazon or Netflix I would give Moon an admiring recommendation so enjoy and I'll see you lot next time!
Camerawork/cinematography: 10/10
Directing: 7/10
Acting: 9/10
Writing: 7/10
Effects: 3.5/10
Overall rating: 36.5/50
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