The way I see it, there are two ways to look at Moonfall. One, you can view it as a movie wanting to be taken seriously. Or two, you can look it as a movie that couldn’t care less about scientific accuracy, and just wants to be a fun movie that makes things go BOOM! Either way, flaws abound. But one way makes for a supremely frustrating experience, while the other provides a wildly fun two hours. Guess which camp I fall into? HINT: I’ll give you the answer. It’s the second one.
I mean, when you think of Roland Emmerich movies, what word comes to mind? There are probably a few correct or obvious choices, but “disaster” has to be at the forefront. Independence Day, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012. And while he hasn’t had much critical success, the man knows what kind of movies he wants to make. And we can add Moonfall to that list.
When mysterious space reasons send the moon out of orbit, the moon is sent on a collision course with Earth, threatening the survival of every living being on the planet. Right there, I’m sold. I don’t need anything more than that. And had Moonfall stuck to that, it could have been a pretty decent movie. The disaster and sci-fi stuff mostly work. Well, okay, “work” might be a generous term. Those parts are at least fun, as long as you can accept the fact that none of it makes a lick of sense. Screw being scientifically accurate, amirite?
But Emmerich isn’t exactly known for making tight, lean movies, so he couldn’t just leave the dramatic stuff alone. He does an okay job here, though, with Moonfall just going over the two hour mark. But it could have been 100 minutes or so and been much better off for it. Because none – and I mean none – of the dramatic parts work in any sense of the word.
The three main characters, disgraced former astronaut Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson), former astronaut and NASA employee Jo Fowler (Halle Berry), and conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman (John Bradley) all have family drama painfully crammed in. I get that having emotional stakes is supposed to connect us to the characters and help us understand their motivation. But isn’t “preventing the ENTIRE WORLD FROM BEING DESTROYED” plenty of motivation? Most of the dramatic scenes come across as nothing more than checklist items, with so little time spent on them that you barely have time to register them before the next big disaster strikes.
Just give us the explosions, the avalanches, the physics-defying stunts (yes, there’s talk about how all this messes with Earth’s gravity, but it doesn’t matter; what Emmerich does here still for sure gives the middle finger to science). That’s where the fun happens. Give us the car jumping a ridge, bouncing off a stray piece of rock, and landing safely. That’s what we come to a movie like this for.
But with all the wild sci-fi aspects, and a game cast, where Moonfall really shines is in its absolutely bananas final act. Obviously I won’t go into specifics, so suffice to say that it truly goes off the rails. None of it makes a single ounce of logical sense and it all comes completely out of nowhere. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have the biggest shit-eating grin on my face the entire time, laughing through the absurdity. Emmerich even has the absolute audacity to tease the possibility of a sequel! Truly some inspired story-telling.
Moonfall isn’t going to be for everyone. For those that hate it, I get it. I can’t argue that it’s any sort of cinematic masterpiece. But it’s targeted at a very specific type of movie fan. And for those people, it’s going to be a hit, even while we recognize its many, many, many, many flaws. So get a ticket to the biggest screen you can find, turn your brain off for a couple hours, and simply enjoy it for the completely wild, bonkers ride that it is.
Score: 58/100
