Movie Review: Moon (2009)
Summary:
In the near future, a corporation has figured out how to harvest energy from the sun via a station on the the moon. Sam Bell accepted a 3 year post as the sole human being in the station. His only company is Gerty, a computer who is faceless save an emoticon that expresses the emotions behind his statements. It starts to look like three years may have been too long of a stint for Sam. Is he going crazy or is there something more sinister at work?
Review:
This movie largely consists of just one actor performing–Sam Rockwell, who plays Sam Bell. This is not an easy task to pull off while maintaining audience interest, and he does a wonderful job. Kevin Spacey, who voices Gerty, strikes just the right combination of mechanical and human sounding vocalizations. He does a splendid job being creepy.
The concept of a future where one corporation provides most of the energy used by the planet is a great scifi concept to base a film on. The technology and sociology necessary for this to occur are both believable enough that not too much effort is needed to suspend disbelief. On the other hand, the movie never really explains how exactly the energy is harvested. This struck me as a moderately important plot element to be missing.
The special effects were surprisingly good for a low budget film such as this. In fact, I kept forgetting that it wasn’t a big blockbuster release.
I can’t say too much more without ruining the movie for you. I will tell you that at first I thought it was just average, but then I couldn’t stop thinking about it for days after watching it. Particularly when I saw a bus with an emoticon on it that looked just like Gerty’s. I love it when a movie affects you in a sneak attack way, and I highly recommend Moon if you enjoy scifi or thought provoking films.
4 out of 5 stars
Source: Redbox
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Opinions of a Wolf 
This is one film I missed when it came to the cinema here in the UK as it was quite literally only on for a few days. I definitely want to give it a go though. I love Sam Rockwell.
Yes, it had limited release here, which is pretty much why it took me so long to see it.
Funny factoid, my boyfriend kept talking about Kevin Spacey and how he was in American Dream, and I was watching thinking “wow, he looks really young…..” Of course, I realized partway through that Kevin Spacey is the robot Gerty not Sam. 😉
This premise sounds vaguely familiar. Maybe I’ve heard about this movie before? Or maybe it’s based on something? Or maybe I’ve just watched/read too much sci-fi in my life and it’s confusing my memory.
Hmm, I checked it out. The scriptwriters say they were inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, Solaris, Silent Running, and Outland. So maybe if you’ve seen one of those, that’s why? It’s not based on any short stories or books though.
On the other hand, a lot of scifi stories have similar basic concepts, so it could just be that. 😉
I’m just full of desire to quote imdb today =p
According to director Duncan Jones, the film was shown to some NASA scientists who questioned why harvesting of He3 would not take place on the near side of the moon, where He3 is in more abundance. The explanation given was that the choice was made to harvest the far side so as not to affect wildlife.
Which I think is tongue and cheek for “we needed a plot device”, but apparently there is a lot of He3 in the dirt on the moon.
So many questions arise in my mind about this…..
Why did the movie say it was from solar flares if it’s in the moon dirt?
If the solar flares reach the moon, isn’t it really dangerous to be on the moon?
What wildlife?
Why does it matter to the plot that he be on the far side of the moon?
The more I think about it, the more holes I see, and that’s irritating. 😛