Moon

Moon's one of those story based films that's a bit difficult to review. How do you go about it without ruining the story for those who haven't seen it? Even a wee tidbit could set someone's mind in a certain direction before viewing and end up somehow ruining it for them. As such if you haven't seen it it's probably best not to read a full review but rather go and see it first. That's right I'm encouraging you not to read on. What I will say is that Moon's a pretty darn good little film, one that manages to overcome its small budget thanks to creativity and a fantastic performance from Sam Rockwell, who is on screen himself for pretty much the entirety of its running time.

If you don't know anything about it then it's best to stop reading now.

FULL REVIEW

Modern science fiction films tend to be huge, crash, bang wallop affairs. You know the kind of thing, directed by Roland Emmrich, White House being destroyed in an effects scene so convincing you're sure that the scene greeting you on leaving the cinema will be of utter devastation. It's the cinema of the spectacle, all eye-candy and no brains. 2001's unbelievable visually, but thankfully it also looks to explore complex issues about humanity and stuff. Sadly it looks like that's not the type of thing that's going to get the audiences in, it seems they'd rather have a robot's ballsack swung in their collective face. As such the low key delights of Moon will more than likely pass the masses by.

Director Duncan Jones is clearly a fan of those intelligent sci-fi films and as such has performed a small miracle in presenting his own entry to the list. I say a small miracle because he has managed to overcome a minuscule budget of $5 million, which, to put it into perspective, is the same budget of the latest "Worst Film Ever" The Room, to produce a brilliant looking little movie.

Jones has created an aesthetic that echoes those 70's films in the sense that everything in Moon looks like a future as designed by someone forty years ago. It also appears that everything was built that long ago thanks to a general sense of decay in the setting. Even the futuristic technology somehow feels dated. The masterstroke is the use of models for the exterior scenes. If done well, such as in 2001 and the Lord Of The Rings films, models can look great, and that's the case with Moon. One of the biggest problem with CGI is that it can feel somewhat light or airless, something that good models don't suffer from thanks to there being an actual physical object in front of the camera. They fit Moon's retro-future look perfectly and like much of the film act as a refreshing alternative to pretty much everything being released right now.

The spirit of films like Silent Running is not only evident in the design but also in the plot. Sometime in the future we've started mining the moon after burning all of our fossil fuels, something to do with the sun's energy being trapped in them. The mining operation is overseen by one man, Sam, whose only company in the moonbase is GERTY, a computer in the grandest HAL tradition. Sam's mission is almost at a close when he finds himself suffering from hallucinations. After one causes an accident Sam comes face to face with his doppelganger. What follows is an exploration on what it means to be human, particularly the idea of memories and what they are and mean.

The central performance of Sam Rockwell, and by central I basically mean only given the amount of time he is acting on screen himself, is simply brilliant. Rockwell's always been one of those quirky, underrated actors. He's a big star who most people probably can't picture in their mind. Not to matter as he does projects such as this and his performance really is a treat. For most of the film all he has to act against are video transmissions from his wife, his shady corporate bosses, the GERTY puppet, voiced perfectly by Kevin Spacey or the special effect version of himself. A bigger star may have given Moon a greater public profile, but it's doubtful the results would be quite as good.

Moon is by no means an original film, rather it's a very well done mix 'n' match of many other great sci-fi films cobbled together to make a very good little picture. Sam Rockwell truly is fantastic and the brilliant visual design and tight direction set Duncan Jones out as a talent to watch. In a summer of confusion inducing CGI and plotless destruction Moon shows the way forward, funnily enough by looking back.