Movie Review - Moon

I've been craving some real, hard-core science fiction for a long time. It seems these days sci-fi skews closer to what I would consider fantasy, or is obscured by some action-packed, computer-graphics driven flick with a bad-to-really-bad plot and characters.

I had a lot of hope for Moon, the Duncan Jones-directed Sam Rockwell vehicle. The trailer makes it look a bit like 2001, with an isolated protagonist who keeps company with a supercomputer.

While there are aspects of Moon that I really enjoyed, I was also disappointed with several aspects of the film. The film doesn't confront the consequences of a major corporation being ethically corrupt, and the film doesn't give the audience much context on what might be considered acceptable in this futuristic society. What could have been a very interesting discussion of corporate ethics was left unexplored.

I felt the best parts of the film were when both the "past" Sam and the "present" Sam could be contrasted with each other, and I wished that the film explored this more. The reveal of how these multiple instances of characters come-to-be was a bit disappointing - I expected something truly fantastic like a time travel paradox or something like that.

The film does tell an interesting story and it is enjoyable overall. Sam Rockwell is compelling but not quite charismatic enough to pull off the role. By the end of the film you feel it doesn't matter if you care about all the Sam characters or not.

Kevin Spacey's voice fills in the role of Gerty, the HAL 9000 counterpart in this film. The emoticons are charming and provide comedic release.

If you are craving "real" science fiction, I would say to give this film a viewing, but don't expect to come away from the film having learned anything.