Review: Moonfall

Roland Emmerich has made a career out of blowing up the Earth over and over, and over again.  In Moonfall, Emmerich adds in the biggest object in our night sky for good measure.

The Plot – Moonfall

2011

Astronauts Jocinda Fowler, played by Halle Berry, and Brian Harper, played by Patrick Wilson, float in Earth’s orbit, repairing a satellite with the help of the Space Shuttle.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a swarm of CGI particle effects approach.  Moving at breakneck speed, the aliens quickly overwhelm the astronauts.  The satellite: destroyed.  Jo Fowler: knocked unconscious.  Astronaut Alan Marcus: Dead.

Only Brian Harper plays the hero and saves the day.  Harper avoids the swarm, climbs back inside the injured Shuttle, and somehow brings the injured ship, and knocked out Fowler safely back to Earth. 

2022

However, that’s where Fowler’s good fortune comes to an end.  A decade later, he’s a laughing stock instead of an American hero.  His wife left him, his son’s in trouble with the law, and he’s days away from being on the streets.

Conspiracy Theorist and fast food worker KC Houseman, played by John Bradley believes the Moon is hollow and built by aliens.  Few people of significance believe him, even if he has the scientific knowledge to actually be right.

Jo Fowler now heads NASA, and even more importantly, plays the role of mother.  Her life may have been saved by Harper, but she’s no longer willing to employ him as an Astronaut, or in any other capacity.

The Moon Is Falling

KC Houseman may be the first to discover the Moon is headed towards Earth, but not many are willing to listen to him, at first.  But, as stranger and stranger things start to happen, NASA comes calling.

First, Brian Harper, then NASA itself grabs Houseman after the Moon’s pull wreaks havoc on tides across the planet.  NASA even admits it covered up the aliens’ existence, as they try to figure out a way to save the planet.

Moonfall Instant Movie Review – Dragon Movie Guy

The Good – Moonfall

The CGI

Director Roland Emmerich and Computer Graphics companies Scanline VFX, Pixomondo, DNEG, and Framestore teamed up for an ambitious take on this disaster movie.

Some 1700 special effects shots were created for this reported $150 Million budget film.  And, you can see them throughout the entire 130 minute runtime.

The overall quality and variety of shots in Moonfall jumps off the screen.  From shots in orbit around Earth, to tsunamis on Earth, to the middle of the Moon itself; we see these digital artists’ work.

While the CGI is far from photorealistic, the overall quality and consistency maintains itself throughout.  The kinetic energy of the action scenes translates well, creating a visceral reaction that is at least partially believable when watching on the big screen.

The Bad – Moonfall

The CGI

While the overall CGI quality passes the test, the particle effects work leaves a lot to be desired.

The swarming aliens look fake.  It can be a fine line between trying to animate a swarm as a wave versus individual entities, but it misses the mark in this film.

Even with particle effects work taking substantial leaps forward over recent years (think Iron Man’s suit effects in Avengers: Endgame), it still is an inexact science and art.  It’s hard to say exactly what is ‘off’ about these effects, but there is an intangible quality that these particle effects lack.

When you see a swarm of birds or bees, or a school of fish moving together, it somehow looks natural and right.  When watching the particle effects on the alien swarm, something just doesn’t look right about the movement.

Lack Of Character Development

While Roland Emmerich’s disaster movies tend to follow a similar formula, the exact execution and quality of execution tends to vary. 

Moonfall focuses so much on story development and on minutiae details, that character development suffers.  For example, KC Houseman’s story has so much plot to process, we don’t take the time to absorb his ‘why’, and the pain that drives motivation.  

Not that the emotional depth of the characters needs to match an Oscar Nominated Drama; but we have to care about our main characters enough to care whether or not they survive the CGI alien attack.  Instead, Houseman comes across simply as a crazy conspiracy theorist who happened to be right, and not a concerned scientist to whom no one would listen.

That reality holds true for Patrick Wilson and Halle Berry’s characters as well.

The Review

For anyone new to Writer/Director Roland Emmerich’s movies, Moonfall gives a crash course in his signature style.
Emmerich borrows heavily from his previous films.  Elements from Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, and even 2012 are clearly seen throughout Moonfall.  If only the callbacks to these much more successful films translated into a quality picture this time around.

Unfortunately, Moonfall is more cluster-F@#% than coherent storytelling.  So much focus is given to the buildup, and the action at the end; the film lacks a consistent flow and feel from beginning to end.

So much time and money was spent on the CGI, you can tell every scene that was fully rendered was included into the finished film.  Even though the pacing and runtime suffer as a result, they were kept in the final edit.

The lack of humanity in our characters also hurts Moonfall.  Why should I as a viewer care about the Earth’s survival, if I haven’t taken the time to care about the characters running for their lives?

ID4

Part of what worked so well about Independence Day was caring about Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum survived until the end.  Will Smith was funny and was raising Vivica A. Fox’s son.  Jeff Goldblum wanted to get back together with his Ex-wife and take care of his aging Father.  We bothered learning about them, so we cared whether or not the survived the alien ship.

However, we didn’t spend the time to meet Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry, and John Bradley’s characters, so we don’t really care if they survive the CGI Particle Effect aliens.  They are just another random set of characters running for their lives, not ‘people’ we have a vested emotional interest in rooting for their survival.

The fact that Moonfall is a high budget special effects movie released in February, should be proof enough that even the studio realized they have a stinker on their hands.

Skip Moonfall, or wait until home video.

Additional Information

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