Science Fiction movies have been around for as long as Hollywood has been making pictures, the newer ones tend to have some of the more odder plots and the story can seem so unbelievable they are like watching paint dry, with Aliens we got a look at just why we have this fear of what is out there, with Close Encounters Of The Third Kind we got contact and with Duncan Jones' "Moon" we get life as we believe it is.
Astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is at the end of his three year tour of duty on the moon, he works alongside his personal computer GERTY (Kevin Spacey) to send to Earth a resource that has helped to end a power shortage here. Helium-3, is the current clean and abundant fuel used on Earth. Sam is starting to experience some odd side effects and starts to wonder if he is in fact well enough to go home. There is no direct communication link available between the lunar station and Earth, so with so little contact between him and his family he starts to hallucinate. With two weeks to go, he gets into an accident at one of the mechanical harvesters and is rendered unconscious. Injured, he awakens back at the station in the infirmary. After his recuperation, he takes an unauthorized trip back to the broken harvester, where he makes an unexpected discovery. Because of this find, he begins to doubt his sanity, then his true identity, then he begins to wonder just what it is that GERTY does , and what is the main job of the computer.
Being told that the company is sending a rescue team to help Sam and to bring him home, Sam wonders if that is true and sets about to fix the satellite that will help him get communication up and running with Earth again. The little odd twist that Moon throws our way will make you at first shake your head, then you will start to wonder at who is who and if Sam is in fact Sam. The movie has no monsters or aliens, no super storm that threatens everyone it has story heart and a little twist that will blow you away. Moon is a genuinely moving journey into the nature of individuality.
Moon has no CGI effects to speak of and the main star is just Sam Rockwell, that alone can be a burden for any star and the fact the Rockwell does such a fine job is a testament to his talent. In moon he gets to be up front and not be upstaged by another actor, even with Kevin Spacey voicing GERTY, he still doesn't bump into Rockwell's talent. Nathan Parker's screenplay makes use of Rockwell's considerable talents. Moon is almost a one-man show and Rockwell conducts us through the terrain with a gentle ease. What we get is a baffling mystery that challenges the viewer to use their minds. For this alone Moon will remain in your thoughts long after you see it, plus the twist that is never fully revealed will leave you to think. What is this? Hollywood not giving us the vanilla ending they think we want. THANK YOU is what I say.
I give Moon a 3 and on my avoidance scale a 0, this is almost the perfect film to watch, one man alone can be more entertaining then a slew of million dollar Hollywood stars. But the film does lack in originality, but Rockwell's performance is utterly amazing and is hard to think of any one actor who couldhave done a better job.
Moon is rated R for Language
Running time is 1 hr. 37 mins.
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