Grade: B+
Science fiction often crosses over into the fantasy genre (i.e. Star Wars). This can be fun yes, but some – me included – enjoy reality-based science fiction more. Why? Well, first of all, guys who like reality-based science fiction usually don’t have long ponytails or play the card game Magic. Also, those of us who enjoy reality-based science fiction enjoy it because it has the human touch and is more concerned with the characters than dragons and such. Basically, we are what you call somewhat “normal” people, although I do admit calling me normal might be a bit of a stretch.
The 2009 Sundance film “Moon,” is a fine example of reality-based science fiction. Essentially, it feels like a cross between “Solaris” and “2001,” but it makes much more sense than either of the latter films.
Of course, the film takes place in the future, and humans have found the key to reversing the world’s energy crisis: mining the moon for a rare gas. A company known as Lunar Industries has developed a space station on the moon so the gas can be mined, and astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is the only human living on the space station, overseeing the operation. Fortunately, he is joined by the talking, almost-human supercomputer “GERTY” (Kevin Spacey’s voice).
Obviously, Bell gets lonely up on the moon by himself, and the only real human interaction he has is with his bosses at Lunar and his wife Tess, both through delayed messages. It gets so bad, in fact, that he starts to suffer from hallucinations. One day while driving a moon rover to make a repair to a damaged part of the space station, he crashes and loses consciousness, then wakes up back in the space station.
GERTY helps nurse Bell back to health, and once Bell is back on his feet, he goes against GERTY’s advice and takes a second rover back to the crash site, where he finds his injured self inside the original rover. (Trippy, eh?) From here, both Sam Bells work to put together the clues and find out why there are two of them.
The “Solaris” and “2001” influences are glaringly obvious throughout this film. In fact, if “Solaris” and “2001” had a baby, it would probably be “Moon.” The only difference is “Moon” actually makes sense in the end. Perhaps this is because “Moon” was prepared for the screen; “Solaris” and “2001” were both novels first, and even in the hands of filmmakers like James Cameron, Steven Soderbergh and Stanley Kubrick, something is still lost in the adaptations. Lem’s original “Solaris” and Clark’s original “2001” are wonderful, and they actually make a lot more sense than their cinematic adaptations do. (Kubrick’s “2001” wasn’t that good. Don’t listen to what those people say. They’re liars.)
But back to “Moon” … yes. This is director Duncan Jones’ first ever full-length film, and it’s quite a debut. The cinematography is gorgeous, as is performance by Rockwell, in both his roles, and the soundtrack. GERTY is also adorable, with a much warmer personality than HAL from “2001.” In fact, he communicates with the Bells through little emoticons that look like they were ripped directly off of America Online.
Not much more can be said about this film without giving it away, but needless to say, things will get freaky before the end of the film.
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