This is a movie review for "Moonfall", released February 2, 2022. I saw a clip of this on the TV (a Sci-Fi channel) on March 14, 2024, which grabbed my attention so I decided to watch this. I finish watching this March 16, 2024.
I find it hilarious that this movie was released 02-02-22. Is this trying to make a statement about life by releasing it on such a symmetrical numbered day? Probably just coincidence.
My Storytime Brief Video on This Movie
Trailer
Genre
Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Notable Cast
Halle Berry ... Jocinda Fowler
Patrick Wilson ... Brian Harper
John Bradley ... KC Houseman
Charlie Plummer ... Sonny Harper
Plot
Earth's Moon has had an incident where it is falling out of orbit. How can we stop it / fix the problem?Let's send acting NASA director Jocinda Fowler (Halle Berry), expert astronaut Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson), and genius nerd KC Houseman (John Bradley) in an attempt to save the Earth. It turns out that the Moon is a megastructure built by our far-past ancestors to help create/sustain an environment for raising organic life [humanity] and that the ancestors had a war with their AI which wants to take out all organic life. Their war has come to our planet and their AI wants to take out "two birds with one stone": take out the Moon which will take out the Earth and the chance for any other earth to be created.
Can Jo, Brian, and KC save the Moon and the Earth? Can their families survive the disaster from this whole thing?
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
4/5 - *SPOILERS*
I must give credit to the idea of this movie - the Moon is a MEGA STRUCTURE!! With a white dwarf in the middle of it! And a gyroscopic ring system to keep it in orbit and to help create/sustain the earth for human life. Absolutely awesome.
Oh, and the creators of this megastructure? Our ancestors from long long ago (in a galaxy far far away.....). But why is their mega scientific creation here and not them? Well, because AI rose up [surprise?] and decided to take out organic life or at least humans. They don't say whether the AI goes after animals too but they definitely say that the swarm of technology is going after organic life with electronic technology near them, aka "humans".
I have to argue that all creatures have some sort of electrical current/influence in their biology so maybe they mean organic with the intelligence to have created electronic technology? That would make more sense because, as far as we know, humans are the only ones to make tools with electrical workings.
Anyways, there were definitely some potholes in this movie plot. First off, I get that Brian's son Sonny was disappointed that no one would stand by him (Brian) after he testified about the swarm back 10-12 years ago attacking a space mission that he, Jo, and a third astronaut had been on and that had resulted in the loss of the third astronaut. However, that doesn't mean that Sonny just automatically would go for the bad-boy image lashing out, stealing cars, etc. I don't understand why they made him like that. Then the movie tries to talk about his relation with his stepfather and the fact that he had never gone up to his mom's/stepdad's Aspen retreat (at a guard gate, he says to a shooter, "I'm Brenda's son." She shoots at him saying "I've never seen him before."), which was awkwardly set up. Sonny eventually tells his stepdad that he doesn't hate him, which is good because his stepdad does a self-sacrifice for one of his daughters (gives his oxygen tank to his daughter so she can breathe and continue walking to safety). At least his stepdad tried to be a good person and had the closure that his stepson didn't hate him.
Sonny, however, was still a bit of a mess with the information around him. We see him trying to be good and taking care of Jo's son and her foreign exchange student, in the way a friend's family looks out for another friend's family. Yet Sonny is still a weird hodgepodge of everything. The biggest pro going for him in this movie is the fact that his dad is the main character. If Brian wasn't his father, there would be almost no point to this character. Because of Sonny, Brian is still wanting to protect the world. True, Brian has been acting as a fallen-from-grace character since he was silenced about the AI swarm back at the last space mission. He's been running from landlords and hiding away. He's bitter but not completely without merit. Was he around much for his son? I don't know, though some would say that the grand theft auto stunt by his son would be an indication that maybe Brian wasn't there, though he would do anything for his son.
Secondly, it almost seemed like the creator of this storyline was using the fact that the Moon's megastructure had its own gravity to influence action scenes. Obviously, you're going to have to deal with gravity changes when you have two bodies so close to each other, but the rules of the gravity didn't seem consistent.
There's a Three-Stooges group of bad guys that come after Sonny, his stepdad and his mom, his half sisters, the foreign exchange girl, and Jo's son. I say Three Stooges because there are three, they are dumb, and their persistence on being a nuisance is ridiculous. These three steal Jo's son's backpack and the vehicle that Sonny had driven away from the rocket launch site and you'd think that was the last of them. They came back a second time to take the oxygen tanks from them (in a building) and Sonny reverses the theft, getting out of there. They come back for the third time, all three of them getting into vehicles to chase after our group because of the oxygen tanks. Spoilers but none of the Three Stooges survive and our group gets away from them safe.
In "Armageddon" (released 1998), they had the jump over the "Grand Canyon of this asteroid" but they had to use thrusters to land on the other side instead of floating up into space.
In this movie, however, they sped up the car to get across a drop. They fly upwards, bouncing off of a floating 'island' of ground that was being drawn upwards, then somehow find themselves on the other side of this drop with all the wheels down on the ground safe and sound. I guess you could say "well, the moon isn't directly above so the influence on the area is reduced which is why they didn't get grabbed by the moon's gravity field and that's how they landed", but that still doesn't make full sense to me. If we just had parked cars being moved by the moon, why wouldn't that influence the car they were in? Oh, maybe because they were in motion? Maybe the gravity of the moon was enough to make a jumping semi truck's jump further, over our group's car and into one of the bad guys, but not enough to grab on to a car that is skidding on snow and ice? Right, because snow and ice totally gives great traction.... [Being very sarcastic.]
The death of the first Three Stooge was great because it reminded me of "Twister" (released 1996) with the twister throwing big things, especially Jonas' death. Sorry, Jonas, but you were an idiot that should have listened and therefore died. This stooge died similarly, which was somehow satisfying.
Anyways, there are a few nods in the movie to other sci-fi movies.
- stepdad Tom switches his vehicle from Eco to Sport mode as Sonny is driving and says "Switch to warp mode"(Star Trek).
- KC at one point comments on the fact that their shuttle has gotten a speed update by saying "Ludicrous speed" (Spaceballs).
....I have more to say but cannot find the words to say, so I will be stopping this movie review here. If i remember what I wanted to say, I'll add it later.
Thank you for reading! More reviews to come eventually.
~ R
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