Jason KingMoon 9.5/10
February 17th 2010 09:46
:
BRILLIANT FILM
Category: No Category
Imagine living by yourself for 3yrs with your closest neighbor being a space flight away. The only person you get to speak to isn't a person at all but a robotic computer with the voice of Kevin Spacey. I would kill myself 
But for Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) this is his job. Sam Bell has a three year contract to work for Lunar Industries. For the contract's entire duration, he is the sole employee based at their lunar station. His primary job responsibility is to harvest and periodically rocket back to Earth supplies of helium-3, the current clean and abundant fuel used on Earth. There is no direct communication link available between the lunar station and Earth, so his only direct real-time interaction is with GERTY, the intelligent computer whose function is to attend to his day to day needs. With such little human contact and all of it indirect, he feels that three years is far too long to be so isolated; he knows he is beginning to hallucinate as the end of his three years approaches. All he wants is to return to Earth to be with his wife Tess and their infant daughter Eve, who was born just prior to his leaving for this job. 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, he assumes assisted by GERTY. GERTY tells him that a rescue team named Eliza will come to the station to clean up the aftermath of the accident. After his recuperation, he takes an unauthorized trip back to the broken harvester, where he makes an unexpected discovery. Because of his find, he begins to doubt his sanity, then his true identity, then the company and GERTY's willingness to do what is best for him. Because of his resulting beliefs, his sole mission becomes how to get back to Earth on his own.
This is by far the most intelligent and brilliant sci fi released since Kubrick's original 2001. It has many moments that are similar to 2001 but has enough intelligence to stand on its own. It is a real possibility story and not one that involves light sabres and X-Wings and while I love Star Wars, it is fun and action, while this is philosophical and will make you ponder for hours afterwards. It is powerful, sad, and a story of isoloation, despair and utter horrendous betrayal. It is also a courageous story that shows what one men will do to survive against all odds.
This is the directorial debut of Duncan Jones, who until now, is more known for the fact that he is David Bowie's son. He has been working in effects in commercials and drew on this experience to make this film, full of effects on a budget of only $5million. This is basically the same budget as a Coke commercial and Jones made a sci fi feature film that will become a cult classic. As a weird piece of trivia, besides the Bowie connection, one of the producers, Trudie Styler is married to another rock singer, Sting.
Rockwell is mesmerising, I originally thought he wouldn't be an ideal choice for this character, but now I have seen it, I couldn't think of anyone better to play the part. He was brilliant and shows an amazing range playing all of Sam. I felt for him throughout the entire film and hope we get to see more of Rockwell in upcoming films. Very under rated!!
Spacey's voice is kind of scary, a bit like Lex Luthor as your companion in voice only. He is very reminiscent of HAL from 2001 and the only thing that annoyed about this film was the Robotic form of GERTY - those stupid smiley faces that changed depending on the emotion that GERTY was meant to be experiencing. It annoyed the crap out of me. I would have taken to GERTY with a sledge hammer if I was Sam. You can see them in the trailer below.
Another thing that makes MOON a success and a similarity to 2001 is the use of original classical music by Clint Mansell. He has worked on many films but most notably for me The Wrestler and Requiem for a Dream. The use of classical music in space gives it an extra dimension of beauty. And the beauty of this film is stunning. The cinematography is a sight to see. It highlights the entire film and Cinematographer Gary Shaw is an unknown in the industry - I look forward to seeing more of his work.
To be honest, this last year has provided some amazing sci fi. From Star Trek to District 9 these have been huge succesful bloackbusters. Besides these two films, and Moon, sci fi has been shit for years. I thought Sunshine was ok, Solaris made me want to slash my wrists and I can't think of a good one prior to this that has the impact and intelligence of the genre. In the 70's and 80's sci fi was king, now, most people think sci fi is painful and that they have covered all that can be covered on film. Not so - the possibilities are as endless as the galaxy and Moon proves this with ease. It is a massive shame that it only got a very limited release in a handful of cinemas. It will be appearing soon on DVD and Blu Ray and I can't wait to add it to the collection.
It is a pain I missed this in the cinemas last year, along with The Hurt Locker. They both would have made my Top 10 films of 2009 as a few wrote in my comments for my Top 10. 2009 was an amazing year for the sci fi genre - now keep it up people!!!
Do yourself a favour and watch it as soon as you can. Worth 9.5/10 and watch it with some friends - you may feel lonely afterwards and will want someone to discuss it with.
But for Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) this is his job. Sam Bell has a three year contract to work for Lunar Industries. For the contract's entire duration, he is the sole employee based at their lunar station. His primary job responsibility is to harvest and periodically rocket back to Earth supplies of helium-3, the current clean and abundant fuel used on Earth. There is no direct communication link available between the lunar station and Earth, so his only direct real-time interaction is with GERTY, the intelligent computer whose function is to attend to his day to day needs. With such little human contact and all of it indirect, he feels that three years is far too long to be so isolated; he knows he is beginning to hallucinate as the end of his three years approaches. All he wants is to return to Earth to be with his wife Tess and their infant daughter Eve, who was born just prior to his leaving for this job. 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, he assumes assisted by GERTY. GERTY tells him that a rescue team named Eliza will come to the station to clean up the aftermath of the accident. After his recuperation, he takes an unauthorized trip back to the broken harvester, where he makes an unexpected discovery. Because of his find, he begins to doubt his sanity, then his true identity, then the company and GERTY's willingness to do what is best for him. Because of his resulting beliefs, his sole mission becomes how to get back to Earth on his own.
This is by far the most intelligent and brilliant sci fi released since Kubrick's original 2001. It has many moments that are similar to 2001 but has enough intelligence to stand on its own. It is a real possibility story and not one that involves light sabres and X-Wings and while I love Star Wars, it is fun and action, while this is philosophical and will make you ponder for hours afterwards. It is powerful, sad, and a story of isoloation, despair and utter horrendous betrayal. It is also a courageous story that shows what one men will do to survive against all odds.
This is the directorial debut of Duncan Jones, who until now, is more known for the fact that he is David Bowie's son. He has been working in effects in commercials and drew on this experience to make this film, full of effects on a budget of only $5million. This is basically the same budget as a Coke commercial and Jones made a sci fi feature film that will become a cult classic. As a weird piece of trivia, besides the Bowie connection, one of the producers, Trudie Styler is married to another rock singer, Sting.
Rockwell is mesmerising, I originally thought he wouldn't be an ideal choice for this character, but now I have seen it, I couldn't think of anyone better to play the part. He was brilliant and shows an amazing range playing all of Sam. I felt for him throughout the entire film and hope we get to see more of Rockwell in upcoming films. Very under rated!!
Spacey's voice is kind of scary, a bit like Lex Luthor as your companion in voice only. He is very reminiscent of HAL from 2001 and the only thing that annoyed about this film was the Robotic form of GERTY - those stupid smiley faces that changed depending on the emotion that GERTY was meant to be experiencing. It annoyed the crap out of me. I would have taken to GERTY with a sledge hammer if I was Sam.
You can see them in the trailer below.
Another thing that makes MOON a success and a similarity to 2001 is the use of original classical music by Clint Mansell. He has worked on many films but most notably for me The Wrestler and Requiem for a Dream. The use of classical music in space gives it an extra dimension of beauty. And the beauty of this film is stunning. The cinematography is a sight to see. It highlights the entire film and Cinematographer Gary Shaw is an unknown in the industry - I look forward to seeing more of his work.
To be honest, this last year has provided some amazing sci fi. From Star Trek to District 9 these have been huge succesful bloackbusters. Besides these two films, and Moon, sci fi has been shit for years. I thought Sunshine was ok, Solaris made me want to slash my wrists and I can't think of a good one prior to this that has the impact and intelligence of the genre. In the 70's and 80's sci fi was king, now, most people think sci fi is painful and that they have covered all that can be covered on film. Not so - the possibilities are as endless as the galaxy and Moon proves this with ease. It is a massive shame that it only got a very limited release in a handful of cinemas. It will be appearing soon on DVD and Blu Ray and I can't wait to add it to the collection.
It is a pain I missed this in the cinemas last year, along with The Hurt Locker. They both would have made my Top 10 films of 2009 as a few wrote in my comments for my Top 10. 2009 was an amazing year for the sci fi genre - now keep it up people!!!
Do yourself a favour and watch it as soon as you can. Worth 9.5/10 and watch it with some friends - you may feel lonely afterwards and will want someone to discuss it with.
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Comment by Matt Shea
It really is great stuff. I had the same thought about Rockwell going into the film, but he really nailed it.
You mentioned the producers and a good friend made an excellent point recently: that the producers are the real heroes of this film - being able to bring all of it together for such a small amount of money. Most producers would have said to Jones, 'Get lost - we need more money,' but these guys took on the challenge and got it done.
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
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I think the producers had worked with Jones prior on commercials and they probably knew what he would do. Possibly a "who you know" scenario that made this work. Good for him though - it is amazing.
It would have scored perfect it wasn't for this silly smiley faces - that for some reason I seem to always put in my posts