Directed By:
Roland Emmerich
Written By:
Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser, Spenser Cohen
Starring:
Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley
Genre:
Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Rated: PG-13 for violence, disaster action, strong language, and some drug use.
All media used courtesy of Centropolis Entertainment, AGC Studios, H Brothers
The Moon is falling! Yes, Roland Emmerich is back and this time he shows his love for Lexus cars, Elon Musk, and conspiracy theories about the Moon. The moon is knocked out of orbit after a dangerous encounter with an unknown entity. A Space shuttle carrying astronauts played by Halle Berry Patrick Wilson gets knocked around and nobody upon returning to Earth believe them. That is until the very lovable conspiracy theorist played by John Bradley discovers that the Moon is heading straight for earth, will break apart, and destroy us all.
Yes, this is a big dumb cheesy disaster film that if any complaints are lobbed at it, are quickly met with the question “What did you expect?”. A fair point, as most of these types of films are somewhat in on the joke of how ridiculous the premises tend to be. Such felt like the case in the first two acts of Moonfall. But as the film continued to have forced references and clearer than day product placement within a story that grew out of control, I knew I was in for a headache.
The effects are all serviceable. Exactly what you’d expect for a big destruction film. The Moon is very ominous, and the effects of it falling to earth were good. It is always a little funny whenever we see a huge explosion happen and cut back to our actors, who clearly are staring at a green screen reacting to whatever the director is calling out on set. Sometimes the reactions didn’t quite match up to what they should’ve been given the situations.
I think Halle Berry and Patrick Wilson do what they can with their roles. John Bradley was able to still give some likability to his character, but the side plot with Berry and Wilsons families just drags on and serves nothing to the main story. Wish they had focused solely on the a plot and not deviate as much as they did. Once the third act reveals itself all logic is out the window and the story crashes.
Overall, is this a film that is critic-proof due to the nature of a cheesy disaster film? No, because we’ve seen that done well before in addition to being cheesy. I wouldn’t say this is one for the theaters.
