Released: February 2022
Director: Roland Emmerich
Rated PG-13
Run Time: 130 Minutes
Distributor: Lionsgate
Genre: Action/Science Fiction
Cast:
Halle Berry: Jocinda ‘Jo’ Fowler
Patrick Wilson: Brian Harper
John Bradley: KC Houseman
Michael Pena: Tom Lopez
I swear, the planet Earth has a rough time of it, these days. Especially in movies. Alien invasions, nuclear explosions, the sun, people, asteroids, global warming. It seems this planet has taken more punishment than Catherine The Great. Granted, the earth always bounces back, but the movies show it no mercy. I love disaster movies. Whether you’re tackling smaller disasters like volcanoes, tornadoes, or earthquakes, natural disasters make for some visually spectacular moments. To me, Dante’s Peak is one of the best disaster movies ever made. You can even go all the way back to Earthquake from 1974, which was a pretty spectacular film. Even movies about man-made disasters like The Towering Inferno provide some really awesome visuals. When it comes to destroying the planet, nobody can do it better than German director Roland Emmerich. This guy has quite the resumé for planetary annihilation. The only other director that could destroy the planet as well as Emmerich can is Michael Bay. God help us if those two ever team up on a project. That said, Emmerich can come up with some crazy ideas for destroying the world when he’s not sticking his foot in his mouth, but I’ll get to that in a bit. For now, the movie I bring to you is Moonfall.
The movie begins as astronaughts Brian Harper and Jocinda Fowler are working on a satellite when they’re attacked by a mysterious force. While Fowler is praised for saving the shuttle, Brian is laughed out of NASA for his explanation of what happened. 10 years later, a nerdy conspiracy theorist, KC discovers that the moon has changed its orbit and is on a collision course with earth. Trying to get the attention of Brian Harper and NASA, KC is met with skepticism until NASA discovers the exact same thing is happening. Realizing that Earth has about 3 weeks before the moon crashes into it, a plan is set in motion to head to the moon to figure out what’s going on, only to find out that there’s more happening with the moon than they realized. Of all the doomsday scenarios that have played out in movies over the past decade, the moon crashing into Earth is probably the most interesting. From a story-telling standpoint, you’ve seen this kind of movie before. Multiple times actually, and it always plays out the exact same way. Moonfall, aside from some pretty outstanding visuals, doesn’t do anything to distinguish itself from any other disaster flick in existence. Especially from a narrative standpoint. It’s the same as 2012, Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, and Armageddon. The only difference is the mechanism of destruction. If you’ve seen ANY of those other movies, you’ve seen Moonfall.
It’s really funny when you think that Roland Emmerich, the master of disaster, decided to pull his punches with Moonfall. Seriously. You look at all the stuff he did before when it comes to destroying the world, he went all out. 2012 was EPIC in that regard. But for Moonfall, Emmerich decided to restrain himself. Of all the movies to show restraint on, why did it have to be this one. The idea is ripe for apocalyptic levels of destruction, and while we do see some of that, there really isn’t enough. Instead, the film focuses on the adventures of a handful of people that I couldn’t care less about and their attempts at preventing Earth’s destruction. Now, to be fair, some of the ideas involved with the moon and what it represents are incredibly interesting. There’s SOME high-level science fiction in those ideas, but as is usually the case, Roland Emmerich isn’t smart enough to implement those ideas in a meaningful way. You could tell from the trailers that the moon in the film is a version of the Dyson’s Sphere, a real-life scientific theory of a megastructure that was designed to harness the power of a star. There’s a lot of creative things you could do with that idea, especially in a disaster movie, but it’s essentially window dressing here where Emmerich would rather focus his efforts on bad family drama. I have to give credit to the actors. Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry, John Bradley, and everybody act the hell out of this movie considering the god-awful script that they’ve been given.
To give Moonfall SOME credit, the disaster sequences are pretty spectacular when they do happen. I have to be honest: Seeing the moon roll over in the sky is a pretty epic and terrifying image. They don’t really skimp on some of the major destruction and explosions. But as I’ve said before, there’s not enough of it. It doesn’t go off the rails enough to wow the audience. Again, there’s nothing here that hasn’t been done before and done better. On the plus side, it’s not boring. It moves pretty quickly. Honestly, I would rather watch this than the new Scream movie any day of the week. I don’t think it’s completely awful. It’s definitely got some spectacular moments, and if you set your expectations properly, you might have a good time. I did have a good time, but not always in the way that the movie intended. This is the kind of movie where you get your friends, a pizza and some cheap beer to enjoy.
In my introduction, I said that Roland Emmerich had stuck his foot in his mouth. Let me explain: According to Deadline, Roland Emmerich slammed Star Wars and the Marvel movies for “ruining our industry a little bit.” I find it hilarious that he’s complaining about blockbuster movies, when he himself has made several including Independence Day, one of the biggest blockbusters of the 1990s. It would be one thing if the success of those movies actually had an effect on his ability to make a movie, but here’s the problem: Moonfall cost 150 million dollars to make and it didn’t even bring in 10 million on its opening weekend. That makes it one of the biggest box-office bombs of the year so far. You could say the film left a moon-sized crater in Lionsgate’s wallet. This isn’t the first time a director has tried to slam successful movies. We’ve seen this song-and-dance from a number of high-profile directors including Martin Scorsese. It’s one thing to say that Star Wars and Marvel movies aren’t for you. That would have been just fine. But they had to take it one step further and actually accuse THESE movies which are successful, of not being “true” cinema. Any movie that can bring in a large audience, especially during a pandemic, is a win in my books. People need a reason to go back to theaters. Spider-Man: No Way Home provided that, and it’s one of the biggest box-office successes of all time. Normally, I wouldn’t bring this up in a review, but Roland Emmerich started blasting movies before Moonfall was even released. Do you even think that people will go see that movie after he made those comments? It’s just a thought.
Anyway, do I recommend Moonfall? If you’re a disaster movie buff like me, it might be worth checking out, but you’re not really missing anything if you don’t.