Moonfall came out in theatres during omicron's first wave, at a time when many Canadian cinemas had only just reopened and were still operating well under capacity. That's a huge problem for a movie like this, which is only really fun to watch on the biggest screen possible with popcorn, m&m's and one of those huge Cokes from those fancy space machines.
Moonfall is the latest disaster epic from Roland Emmerich, the guy behind cheeseball classics Independence Day (1996) and The Day After Tomorrow (2004), as well as full-blown stinkers 2012 (2009) and Independence Day: Resurgence (2016). Unfortunately, Moonfall is closer to the latter category than the former, with its stiff dialogue coming from stock characters whom Emmerich doesn't even bother to flesh out into real people.
Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) is a disgraced former astronaut shunned by the space community after claiming to have seen alien technology during a spacewalk. Flash forward a decade, and the Moon's orbit veers suddenly off-course and begins descending towards Earth — something that conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman (John Bradley) explains as being the result of the Moon being a hollow megastructure created by aliens. NASA bigwig Jocinda Fowler (Halle Berry) soon learns that the Moon really is hollow, having been tunnelled into and occupied by a mysterious technological being.
The impending destruction of Earth is curiously downplayed, consisting of little more than a couple of news reports about cars fleeing cities. After witnessing the alien being kill a ship full of astronauts, Jocinda calmly tells her boss, "Everything we thought we knew about the nature of the universe has just gone out the window," as NASA employees calmly shuffle around the room. It's almost farcical how badly the actors undersell their lines, bringing none of the slow-burning tension that made Independence Day's alien invasion so memorable.
Moonfall blazes through its setup, but it doesn't bother with character development either. Brian is estranged from his wife and one of his kids lands in prison after a high-speed police chase — but "guy with a troubled family life" is about as much as we ever learn about him. Jocinda similarly doesn't have any character traits beyond "is divorced," while K.C. is a stock depiction of a tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorist — a scientific genius who outsmarts NASA and works at a drive-through.
Without any character development and such a glossed-over plot, I'm genuinely not sure how this film lasted more than two hours. Thankfully, Moonfall gets significantly better in its second half, with loveably over-the-top special effects (the gravitational anomalies due to the proximity of the Moon are particularly neat-looking) and a storyline twist that's far more interesting than expected.
Maybe, in a movie theatre, I could have stuffed my face with snacks and had a pretty good time. Watching on Amazon Prime, it takes a serious effort to make it through the first half.
(Lionsgate)Moonfall is the latest disaster epic from Roland Emmerich, the guy behind cheeseball classics Independence Day (1996) and The Day After Tomorrow (2004), as well as full-blown stinkers 2012 (2009) and Independence Day: Resurgence (2016). Unfortunately, Moonfall is closer to the latter category than the former, with its stiff dialogue coming from stock characters whom Emmerich doesn't even bother to flesh out into real people.
Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) is a disgraced former astronaut shunned by the space community after claiming to have seen alien technology during a spacewalk. Flash forward a decade, and the Moon's orbit veers suddenly off-course and begins descending towards Earth — something that conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman (John Bradley) explains as being the result of the Moon being a hollow megastructure created by aliens. NASA bigwig Jocinda Fowler (Halle Berry) soon learns that the Moon really is hollow, having been tunnelled into and occupied by a mysterious technological being.
The impending destruction of Earth is curiously downplayed, consisting of little more than a couple of news reports about cars fleeing cities. After witnessing the alien being kill a ship full of astronauts, Jocinda calmly tells her boss, "Everything we thought we knew about the nature of the universe has just gone out the window," as NASA employees calmly shuffle around the room. It's almost farcical how badly the actors undersell their lines, bringing none of the slow-burning tension that made Independence Day's alien invasion so memorable.
Moonfall blazes through its setup, but it doesn't bother with character development either. Brian is estranged from his wife and one of his kids lands in prison after a high-speed police chase — but "guy with a troubled family life" is about as much as we ever learn about him. Jocinda similarly doesn't have any character traits beyond "is divorced," while K.C. is a stock depiction of a tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorist — a scientific genius who outsmarts NASA and works at a drive-through.
Without any character development and such a glossed-over plot, I'm genuinely not sure how this film lasted more than two hours. Thankfully, Moonfall gets significantly better in its second half, with loveably over-the-top special effects (the gravitational anomalies due to the proximity of the Moon are particularly neat-looking) and a storyline twist that's far more interesting than expected.
Maybe, in a movie theatre, I could have stuffed my face with snacks and had a pretty good time. Watching on Amazon Prime, it takes a serious effort to make it through the first half.