MOVIE REVIEW: MOON

Moon is a good movie. Teetering on very good. Even better than the movie I like what it represents. Moon hearkens back to a pre Star Wars period of smart science fiction rather than just action/adventure and explosions that seemingly has defined many films of that genre since. Like a lot of good science fiction Moon takes place off Earth in an unspecified future yet acts as a commentary on the current human condition. There is just something missing. While smart and engaging it lacks a cohesive element that makes it work on a level that would elevate it to greatness.

Moon does an excellent job of straightforward storytelling in what could have resulted in a complicated mess. Sam Bell ( an excellent Sam Rockwell) works for Lunar Industries, Ltd. on an isolated outpost located on the dark side of the moon. His only companion is a robot named Gerty (soothingly voiced by Kevin Spacey) and together they monitor the daily mining activities of remote machines. The mining operation is unearthing (unmooning?) a new fuel source that is delivered to Earth in three days and is now a cheap, abundant fuel source for 70% of our blue planet. Sam is coming to the end of a three year contract and is looking forward to being reunited with is wife and daughter in two weeks time. To say anymore about what happens in those remaining two weeks is to give away a nice twist that sets the rest of the movie in motion. (The trailer is spoilerific in this respect and I recommend not viewing it before seeing the film.)

What happens is interesting and sort of obvious although I didn’t guess the exact explanation for the twist. (So maybe it is not that obvious. But I mentally slapped myself when it was explained as I thought I should have figured that out.)Moon is commendable for its efforts in commenting on the human condition. It is about the effect of loneliness, the frailty of memory, and questioning the worth of an individual. I think the main problem I have is that I’m not sure which of these themes the movie wants to be about. While the story itself, especially the very end, is thought provoking, I have spent more time mulling over what different themes actually exist and how they fit together than I would prefer. My preference isn’t that the theme is obvious but that the theme is decipherable.

All in all I recommend Moon. I hope it ushers in more smart science fiction films.

On a related note I certainly hope that when humans do get to colonize or living on other planets or moons that science fiction films can influence the design and scope of such activities. Strange things are always happening in these movies or the living arrangements have crazy psychological effects. Usually the militaristic utilitarian aspects of these habitats become a hindrance. Even taking financial, engineering, and environmental constraints into mind I think that any future other world outposts can be more comfortable and less lonely for those who choose to live or work there. I don’t have high hopes. An example why can be found in Encounters at the End of the World a documentary directed and narrated by Werner Herzog. In it Herzog visits a science outpost in Antarctica and describes it as something that would be found on the moon. In fact it looks eerily like the outpost found in Moon. I’m not expecting the Taj Mahal to be built on Mars just something that is livable and not mentally deranging.