Moon
Moon, Moon, Moon how I am torn.
Since it appearance at the Sundance Festival this year there has been a rather alot of hype about this thoughtful little art house sci-fi film. Funded by the UK (ish), filmed in the UK, directed but a UKer and staring Kevin Spacey (who might as well be from the UK) it simply felt like a film I could get behind. But I think I may have expected more or too much. Follow me as I tell you a lil bit about the story.
Sam Bell (played rather well by Sam Rockwell) is coming to the end of his three year mining mission on the bright side of the moon, where it has been discovered that helium-3 formed there is a rather powerful tool for supplying Earth with a whole load of electricity. In Sams last few days he starts seeing visions of a teenage girl, one of these scary apparitions appears on a routine trek to pick up the helium from one of the mining robots causing him to crash. Cut to Sam waking up in the hospital ward of the moon base then having a little nosy at his crash and discovering another Sam Bell followed by a voyage of self discovery and an escape mission back to earth.
Now there is nothing wrong with this film, in fact it is beautiful, Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie don’t you know) has done an incredible job of making the Moon look beautiful and bringing the feel of those late 70′s early 80′s sci-fi such as Aliens and Blade Runner bang up to date. The acting was also impeccable, so why so torn David? I hear you ask.
So I will ponder…
still pondering
ponder some more
Think I almost have it
Ok, I will give it a go. I think because of its film festival praise followed by its limited run in art houses cinemas in major cities I was expecting something a little more cerebral. There are plenty of issues that could be developed further, science vs nature, slavery, the human instinct to survive, love, family, corruption and they are just pointed at and not taken as far as I would have liked for the venue it was in. If this had been just a normal trip to the Vue I don’t think I would have had this opinion so I’m probably just being snobby. And on further investigation into the film it is part of a planned trilogy where I’m sure the world will be explored more.
I enjoyed it, didn’t love it. Would recommend but if your not living some where that its not shown don’t feel too distressed I think it will be just as good on DVD.
