Moon

Moon

Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey, Dominique McElligott, Rosie Shaw, Kaya Scodelario

Directed by: Duncan Jones

Reviewed by: Conor Flynn







Yes, to reiterate what thousands of others have already pointed out in their reviews; this film is the directing debut of Duncan Jones, also known as Zowie Bowie, also known as David Bowie’s son. That might probably be the worst kept secret (if it even was a secret to begin with) in the movie industry this summer. Unfortunately it is not the only secret from the film to be overexposed. In their wisdom, the powers that be have attached a trailer to Moon which gives away far too much information. In fact, the less you know going into see this film the better…

Sam Bell (Rockwell) is nearing the end of his three year contract for Lunar Industries mining Helium-3. Soon he will return to earth to his wife and daughter, however, with two more weeks to go, isolation is beginning to take its toll. His only other company is Gerty (voiced by Spacey), the Lunar base robot who takes care of him. Sam becomes increasingly delusional and causes an accident, which leads the company to send out a replacement…

Director Duncan Jones has made a hugely impressive debut and has crafted a technically spectacular film (it cost a meagre-by-Hollywood-standards $5 million to make). Visually the film is stunning; whether it is through the excellent special effects or the amazing set-designs, though one thing in particular stands out. Gerty, much like Robby from the sci-fi classic ‘Forbidden Planet’, is a remarkable achievement. What impresses is the fact that this creation feels realistic; essentially it’s a glorified camera with arms which can move from room to room thanks to some ingenious practical set-designs. Many will note the obvious similarities to Gerty and Hal 9000 from ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, but thankfully Kevin Spacey’s droll monotone delivery adds sly humour to the part, something missing from the latter film. Sam Rockwell also puts in a strong performance in a difficult role.

‘Moon’ isn’t an entirely easy film to define. For every positive, there’s a similar negative, for example, it’s really refreshing to see any science fiction film make a genuine return to hard sci-fi, or put very simply, fiction that doesn’t have far fetched science. The problem is; for anyone who grew up watching films such as ‘Blade Runner’, ‘Silent Running’ and ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ this will seem slightly derivative or overly familiar. Arguably the story feels elongated for a ninety minute feature. A ‘Twilight Zone’ or ‘Outer Limits’ episode would have told this narrative in half the time. Further underlining this sense of padding is Clint Howard’s score. It’s extremely beautiful, both haunting and subtle, but feels underdeveloped. Obviously the pacing is very slow, but the film never feels dull, building to an extremely satisfying climax.

Essentially Moon is not the sci-fi classic that some other reviewers are making out, but as a debut features go, in many ways it is quite remarkable. Well worth checking out, but try avoiding the film trailer.