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Moon, directed by Duncan Jones - son of iconic pop rock singer David Bowie is an ambitious
entry into the independent film market, and it made a big splash when it was released
last year. Set in the unspecified distance future, Sam Rockwell is Sam Bell, who is part
astronaut, and part glorified maintenance worker. Sam is stationed on the far side of
the moon, and is responsible for overseeing an automated mining operation taking place.
Besides a friendly robot voiced with just the right amount of care from Kevin Spacey,
Sam has been on the moon, entirely by himself for almost 3 years. The focus of the movie
from the first scene is really about Sam's internal emotional struggle with isolation,
being unable to communicate with anyone on earth, except in some pre-recorded messages.
But seeing a man experience life in isolation, and dealing with those emotions is nothing
new in cinema, however things get interesting when after a Lunar-roving accident, Sam discovers
he has a clone. From there, the movie sort of muddles its way along trying to figure
out if it's supposed to be a somber version of multiplicity - or a the moon's first corporate
mystery thriller. At first, I was really drawn into this movie. It's deliberately slow pace
kept me guessing for most of the first hour. It was very obvious that there was going to
be a few major twists on the way, but figuring out how they'd play out made this serious
science-fiction movie quite interesting. In what literally amounts to the entire 97 minute
runtime, Sam Rockwell is alone on camera talking to himself. The precision in the emotional
subtly he exhibits really impresses in this film - which is paramount to the success of
this one-man-show of a movie. On a surprisingly small budget of just 5 million, the special-effects
in Moon, especially in sequences where Sam is carrying out entire scenes with his cloned
counter-part are visually stunning, and remarkably flawless. You forget entirely that Sam Rockwell
is playing both lead characters here. Moon wasn't all sunshine however - as I was a bit
disappointed and unmoved by the final act. The way the plot wraps itself up is an obvious,
and forgone conclusion - and is unfortunately slow getting there. With it's serious-tone,
the psychological exploration of human loneliness, Moon is a welcome change of pace in the Sci-Fi
genre, and quite refreshing given most of the dumbed-down material Hollywood is producing
these days. Aside from losing steam in the final act, I felt Moon was a mysterious and
visually captivating film - but far too often, the events and situations felt a bit too familiar
to really excite me. Those are my thoughts on the movie - lets what you had to say in
the YouTube comments.
SQUIZZLER24 A well-shot and very interesting piece of cinematography, pushing and challenging
people's preconceptions of the traditional "space-insanity" movie. A definite watch and
for me, an 8/10.
PoeTheGhost Predictable for fans of the genre, but still a good ride with some top-notch
acting. Very touching, and reminds the viewer what's truly important. 7/10
Okay, lets fire up the Rate-O-Matic to see how you and I rated Moon. Cool and Great rankings!
While I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery and character study in this film, it felt too
slow and familiar in parts for me to score it higher. You guys voted it an 8, with many
of you praising Rockwell's incredible performance in the film.