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Sunday, September 20, 2009

The Brit Report: Moon

And thus this review concludes the exclusive trilogy of must-see-now-or-die-in-agonizing-pain movies. I think I'll have to take it easier from now on... Thanks to Hotshuk, I watched this movie only for 6 pounds instead of 10! Hurrah for that!





MOON
(by Duncan Jones)



Moon is a movie that nobody saw. It made $6M worldwide. My prediction is that in 10-15 years, it will be on most top sci-fi movie lists. Destined to become a cult phenomenon and to be rediscovered later on, Moon is reminiscent of the great sci-fi movies of the '70s and '80s: THX 1138, Solaris, Blade Runner, Alien. What these movies have in common besides offering bleak visions of the future is that they use the science fiction backdrop to tell character-based stories, not offering some eye candy just for the sake of it.

It it impossible to form a synopsis of the movie without falling into spoiler territory, so I'll just say that the movie involves a certain worker (Sam Rockwell), stranded all alone on the surface of the moon for a 3-year contract for a mining company. His only colleague is the base computer, GERTY (Kevin Spacey's voice). Towards the end of his contract, bad things start happening. Sam Rockwell gives a career-best performance, carrying the movie throughout. His choice was inspired, injecting healthy doses of sarcasm and humor in an utterly dramatic role. Duncan Jones' (son of David Bowie, no less) direction is superb. The sets are impeccable, reminding a bit of 2001 and Alien, and although the movie was shot with a $5M budget, it never feels cheap - quite the contrary. Spacey's role is superb: his chilling and sleazy voice is exactly right for the HAL-like computer, but never being a cliche. Bottom line: if you can catch it at a cinema, go see it.
9/10


3 comments:

Eraserheadx said...

MUST.SEE.NOW!

Alas, I'll probably have to wait for the Blu-ray to come out. Good to hear that the movie delivers though.

We need more movies like this one!

Eraserheadx said...

I would also like to say that the poster for Moon is one of THE BEST posters ever made.

It is definitely going up on my wall in the future.

mastorak said...

Fear not EraserheadX...from what I am reading I think we are going to watch it as well as it is intended(in a theater).
From the trailer I got the same 2001-Solaris feeling.
From the previous "return of good sci-fi films" post
http://www.allroundgeek.com/2009/07/return-of-good-science-fiction-films.html
I think this one was the one that I badly wanted to watch.