Reel Review Roundup

Moonfall (M)

Directed by: Roland Emmerich

Starring: Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry, John Bradley

Review by: Julian Wright

The master of disaster, Roland Emmerich (Independence Day,The Day After Tomorrow, 2012, etc) returns to his wheelhouse after a couple of disastrous career side steps (Stonewall, Midway).

Time is quickly running out for everyone on the planet when the Moon is suddenly and mysteriously knocked from its orbit and begins hurtling towards Earth.

Conspiracy theorist KC Houseman (John Bradley) makes the discovery and takes it to disgraced former astronaut Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) and his former colleague Jocinder Fowler (Halle Berry) in the hopes of getting NASA’s attention.

It is no surprise that no one believes them, and so the trio must save the world (and their families) on their own.

Emmerich has covered alien invasions, natural disasters, mutant lizards and the end of the world on multiple occasions, delighting in desecrating every imaginable landmark and monument in his lengthy filmography, that it is almost impressive that he still has some ideas up his sleeve.

Moonfall is as equally ludicrous as his past efforts, and yet this time around there is something different, a little off. Emmerich takes it all a little too seriously.

The concept and scenarios are absurd, but the delivery is straight faced. No one is in on the joke; in fact, they are trying so hard to convince us there is not even a joke to be had.

Where’s the fun in that?

It isn’t until about the final third of this two hour film that things start to become deliriously and deliciously unhinged – characters using the Moon’s gravitational pull to lift debris off trapped heroes etc. This is the kind of so-dumb-it’s-good content we signed up for.

It is disappointing that Wilson and Berry don;t get a chance to have some fun. Shouldn’t this be an opportunity for acclaimed actors to finally let loose with some silly scenarios and hilarious dialogue?

These are, after all, basically comedies with action sequences and a huge special effects budget.

If you can stick it out through all the earnest set-up of a bunch of characters that aren’t even particularly interesting or compelling, there is some reward in the effects department with the Moon ripping up the surface of the Earth as it skims by, and the positively goofy explanation behind the phenomenon.

This entry was posted on February 6, 2022 at 11:53 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.