A mysterious force knocks the moon from its intended orbit around Earth and directs it on a collision course to change life as we know it. With very little time to act before the impact will potentially annihilate the Earth’s population, Jocinda Fowler (Halle Berry), Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) and KC Houseman (John Bradley) undertake a last-ditch mission into space to save civilisation. Overall, very watchable but not something that will need revisiting anytime soon. It’s worth noting that Moonfall is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Director: Roland Emmerich
Writers: Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser, Spenser Cohen
Starring: Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley, Michael Pena
Directed and co-written by Roland Emmerich, the man responsible for Independence Day (1996) and The Day After Tommorrow (2004), two titans of the Sci-Fi genre, it’s reasonable to say that Moonfall had some heavy boots to fill having been released in 2022. Sadly, however, it seems those boots were not filled, with some critics lambasting Moonfall as one of the worst blockbuster releases of recent times.
From a production point of view, the flick was of extreme quality and it’s easy to see why with an estimated budget of around one-hundred and fifty million dollars. With that being said, some of the computer-generated imagery was hit a miss to say the least. The outer space shots were more than likely the highlight of the picture, but the CGI used when it came to the filming back on Earth seemed a little fake and plastic at times, especially when it came to the car scenes on display. There were also some major issues with the pacing, with an ungodly amount of story being unravelled within such a short timeframe. At times, I found myself wondering whether this would have been superior in television format rather than film format.
Interestingly, it’s been said that an astronaut was on set as an advisor during the production of the movie and stated on more than one occasion that several of the scenes portrayed were not really possible – the filmmakers, however, dismissed these comments and claimed that entertainment was key over the sheer realism brought to the audience, certainly a trait that shone throughout the one-hundred and thirty-minute runtime. It’s fair to say that to enjoy Moonfall, you’ll have to be able to suspend your sense of belief from the first minute right up until the last.
The cast was strong, with Halle Berry and Patrick Wilson spearheading the majority as Jocinda Fowler and Brian Harper, respectively. Elsewhere, John Bradley and Michael Pena were just two of the people responsible for providing support, portraying KC Houseman and Tom Lopez.
All in all, Moonfall probably doesn’t justify the huge budget allocated to it, but there were some nicely shot scenes, a half decent story and some snippets of emotion injected too. Not the finest space release of recent years but compared to others of a similar ilk, not the worst. It’s worth noting that Moonfall is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
“You underestimated us.”
KC Houseman – Moonfall
The DC Review Blog - EST. 2020 