Review – Moon
Monday, April 12th, 2010
What do you get when you mix together bits of 2001, Blade Runner, Silent Running, Solaris, Alien, and Dead Ringers? You get Moon, an interesting tour-de-force for actor Sam Rockwell and a reasonably intelligent, if somewhat derivative, sci-fi film.
I’m glad I knew nothing of the premise going into this movie and if you’d like to have the same experience you should stop reading now. The short answer to this review is yes the film is worth seeing despite the fact that the first act felt very long. Now, go check it out and read the rest later. Go!
SPOILERS FOLLOW! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! GO HERE INSTEAD!
Director Duncan Jones does a decent job crafting an interesting story here. I just wish there were more new ideas presented in the script. The ideas that are there gel very well and make for a challenging experience but it all just feels a little too much like been there, done that. We have the sets of 2001 (or Space 1999-your choice), the computer “assistant” from the same film, the three year clone lifespan from Blade Runner, the implanted memories from BR, the space hippie farmer from Silent Running, the mystery and personal relationship angst (not to mention the music) of Soderberg’s version of Solaris, the evil corporate interest from Alien (and it’s sequels), and the filmmaking hurdles of Dead Ringers that allow Sam Rockwell to play against himself in most of the scenes here. The problem isn’t that the sum is less than its parts but that there is nothing new here. Nothing. It’s to the filmmakers’ credit that I still found the movie to be very entertaining.
The real standout performances come from Rockwell and Rockwell as clones from the same stock who don’t know that they’re engineered organisms who’ve been programmed for a single task. I kept asking myself if the Lunar corporation could build and program Gerty (the Hal 9000 of Moon) and keep this whole clone enterprise running, why couldn’t they have machines do the work of Rockwell’s character to begin with but I guess we’d have had no movie then, huh?
I’ve always liked Rockwell but have felt that his ability to disappear into his roles has kept him from achieving the status he deserves. Here he gives the two clone characters distinct characteristics that match the clones’ position in their short lifespans. The recently awakened clone (we’ll call him Sam2) is energetic and curious whereas Sam1 is sick and tired (literally) and just wants to go “home”. It’s fascinating to see how he varies the two characters once they learn who they are and how they’ve been jacked around by the company. You feel for these people and wonder how anyone could treat even clones this way. Even Gerty gets in on the action and wants to help them achieve their goal of going to Earth which shows us that this machine has more compassion than the humans who built it.
While this is a tragic film in many regards, it never quite reaches the depth of emotions that Blade Runner opened me up to. That may well be more about me than about this film, or it may simply be that I’d have felt differently had I never seen BR before. Nevertheless, I found it to be an effective drama and a welcome sci fi film in the wasteland that is CGI sci fi in Hollywood (and San Rafael) today.
