He’s the “master of disaster” with such hits as “Independence Day,” “Midway,” “The Patriot,” and “Stargate.” Now, Roland Emmerich is bringing us “Moonfall” starring Patrick Wilson and Halle Berry. Our J.P. reviews the space drama.
Moonfall
Lionsgate
- Directed by: Roland Emmerich
- Written by: Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser, Spenser Cohen
- Produced by: Harald Kloser, Roland Emmerich
- Starring: Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley, Michael Peña, Charlie Plummer, Kelly Yu, Donald Sutherland
Studio Synopsis
In “Moonfall,” a mysterious force knocks the Moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know it. With mere weeks before impact and the world on the brink of annihilation, NASA executive and former astronaut Jo Fowler (Academy Award® winner Halle Berry) is convinced she has the key to saving us all – but only one astronaut from her past, Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson, “Midway”) and a conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman (John Bradley, “Game of Thrones”) believes her. These unlikely heroes will mount an impossible last-ditch mission into space, leaving behind everyone they love, only to find out that our Moon is not what we think it is.
J.P.’s Take:
You may call “Moonfall” a comeback for writer / producer / director Roland Emmerich, yet this is par for the course for the master of disaster. Emmerich practically reinvents the world cataclysm genre much in the same fashion as Roger Corman, who’s known as the king of Pop/Cult horror and sci-fi.
“Moonfall” starts off in a plain and simple way, a mysterious force knocks the moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurdling on a collision course with life as we know it. With mere weeks before impact and the world on the brink of annihilation, NASA executive and former astronaut Jo Fowler (Halle Berry), is convinced she has the key to saving us all – but only one astronaut from her past, Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) and a conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman (John Bradley) believe her. These unlikely heroes will mount an impossible last-ditch mission into space leaving behind everyone they love, only to find that they might have prepared for the wrong mission.
It appears to be the usual disaster movie; complete with all the mellow drama and scientific babble build up. Schmaltzy dialog and exaggerated family dynamics are also the trope of Emmerich’s filmmaking. This is in no way a knock to either Emmerich or Corman, in fact, there is something oddly endearing about their filmmaking styles. As someone who enjoys films about world crises or catastrophes, “Moonfall” feels quite lightweight and even humorous … as though it were done in a cynical way. That’s to say that many viewers are over the dark and nihilistic forms of this genre of films; therefore, why not keep it on the preposterous and quirky side. It also feels as if the film is making the point that the human race is quite blasé about the world coming to end these days and, thus, Emmerich is mainly making this for squeaks and giggles, which is pretty much the case as you’re sitting through scenes with the moon practically scrapping the Earth’s surface, while people loot and plot against each other.
Emmerich is truly not trying to make any political, religious or social commentary here. He’s simply trying to tell another type of story within the story. In fact, as if we, the viewers, were feeling like the movie had reached its climactic (or rather anticlimactic one) boiling point, we’re somewhat taken by surprise as to the truth of the matter. This is more than simply a disaster movie, it’s a human origins one. Without giving too much away, if you know anything about the strange encounters during the Apollo 11 moon landing mission, you’d catch my drift. The story takes a dive into the theory of the moon being an artificial “megastructure” as character Houseman has spout more than once throughout the movie. All the while we’re watching in awe as to the alluring if quite eerie special effects event. Scenes with the moon shattering into gargantuan pieces as they fall to Earth feels grim yet beautiful … if that’s a thing.
Patrick Wilson as the has been Astronaut Brian Harper and Halle Berry as Astronaut turned NASA deputy Director are on board with the spectacular spectacle, as they keep a straight face talking about how they need to stop this madness from occurring. They didn’t have to do much to put on a performance as these are seasoned actors, and they find ways to make the event believable. That didn’t ruin the fun for me. However, as I knew there was something else going on behind the calamity than they were letting on. And that in itself was the weird take away, whereas you’d want to focus your attention on the outcome. Donald Sutherland, who plays Holdenfield, was the catalyst for the second half, despite having a very brief pop-up in the scene with Berry.
The intriguing thing about this movie as a whole is you’re fooled into thinking this was simply a world ending event. Instead, you’re sort of thrown off course with a back story that has some connective tissue to the entire matter. That doesn’t come until much later in the film. For that, I give it some credit, just for the odd juxtaposition of ideas that seem to fit together like a whacky jigsaw puzzle.