Movie Review - 'Moon'

Pending

Written on - Not yet published to a wikizine

From: getthebigpicture.net

Moon

Starring Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey
Directed by Duncan Jones
Rated R

I don't remember what they charge for admission to Graceland, but unless you're a complete Elvis fanatic, it's a ripoff. There's so much mystique about the place, but when you walk in it's much smaller than you imagined - even the Jungle Room - and you can't go upstairs to see where the real action is. As famous homes go, it's pretty disappointing.

Then you walk across about an acre of land to The King's racquetball courts. There's simply not much of a payoff. Enjoy the gift shops.

Duncan Jones' Moon is not in any sense a ripoff, but I think it's fair to say I expected one more room on of the grand tour than I was shown. Jones has given us a great story with plenty to think about, but visually, cathartically, it misses something in the end.

Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is two years eleven months and two weeks into his three-year contract with Lunar Enterprises, a firm that mines Helium-3 on the dark side of the moon. That isotope is incredibly useful in nuclear fusion, and in the real world, would be an incredibly powerful resource if it were available in large quantities, and it is generally believed that He-3 is in greater supply on the moon, so the science here is relatively sound.

Sam collects the harvested He-3 and sends it back to Earth where it is used as the solution to the world's energy crisis. It's monotonous work, and outside of his onboard computer called GERTY (Kevin Spacey), Sam interacts with no one. He sees messages from his wife, which makes him all the more anxious to end his contract.

On one outing to collect the supercharged helium, Sam is distracted, crashing his moon buggy into the giant moon rock harvester. When he awakes, he has no memory of his previous mission, but knows GERTY and knows he's Sam Bell. But something's not right. There's another Sam Bell. Is it a clone, is it the invention of a lunatic stuck on the moon too long? Is it a machine? Or is Sam even alive?

Previous Article Next Article