Moonfall
starring Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley, Michael Peña, Charlie Plummer, Kellly Yu and Donald Sutherland
written by Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser and Spenser Cohen
directed by Roland Emmerich
Rating: ◊◊◊◊◊
A science fiction disaster movie following two former astronauts - Jocinda Fowler and Brian Harper (Halle Berry and Patrick Wilson) - alongside conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman (John Bradley) - who “megastructure” constructed by aliens, and powered by a captured white dwarf star at its core.
We begin when astronauts Fowler and Harper are in orbit with the space shuttle, repairing a satellite. Then Harper witnesses a mysterious black swarm attacking the space shuttle. Fowler is knocked unconscious and doesn’t witness what Harper sees. After successfully landing the shuttle on earth, NASA blames human error by Harper for the incident. Fowler remains with NASA while Harper becomes embittered in exile.
Ten years later, the moon mysteriously leaves its orbit causing cataclysmic catastrophes on earth. The situation is first detected by conspiracy theorist Houseman, whom nobody believes, of course. To make a long story short, Fowler, Harper and Houseman are sent to the moon. It’s discovered that swarms of intelligent nanotechnology are draining energy from the captured white dwarf inside the moon, thereby causing it to veer off its orbital path. They have to lure the nano swarm away from the moon to be destroyed, allowing the moon to return to its proper orbit.
There is sufficient talent in this movie to make it great. But instead, it was an atrocious load of boring rubbish! Mostly bad due to bad writing, I think. Too many writers on this project! The effects were okay, and Emmerich is a very reputable director. Filmed in Montreal, Canada, with a large budget, it underperformed at the box office and for good reasons. 1) it was released during a global infectious disease pandemic, and 2) it’s crap!
The threat of out-of-control computers, Artificial Intelligence and nanotechnology are a familiar plot. I just wish it wasn’t such an obvious and transparent reflection of contemporary pop-culture fascination and phobia. The evils/dangers of technology thing is a fetish.
I was very interested to see brand placement in the film - Kaspersky anti-virus computer software. I recognized it because I have used Kaspersky in the past. I figured a lot of people wouldn’t see it and recognize it, so I felt quite proud of myself.