Saturday, March 13, 2010

Moon (2009) - Review

Reviewing the moon … well, it’s big and far away and makes tides.

Kidding.

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I saw this on DVD with Jonny late last night. This was supposed to be good, and it did not disappoint. Jon was especially taken by the fact that the director is David Bowie’s son :-)

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Sam Rockwell plays the lone inhabitant of a moon base on the far side, whose sole purpose is to “mine” the moon for HE3, the energy source that saved the world …

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He is only two weeks from returning to Earth and spends a lot of time obsessing about his wife and child. I think you can see why here:

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This movie was shot for $5M … a paltry sum by today’s standards. The cast is very small … two major players, Same and Kevin Spacey as the robot, Gerty. This movie reminds me of movies like Solaris and 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the smallness of cast and locality reminds me of the character movie Tape.

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Gerty is kind of a HAL-ish robot companion that is able to move stuff around with robotic arms that hang from the ceiling, and has a screen with an emoticon on it that renders its emotions all the time. Clever, that. Kevin Spacey’s voice had the perfect soft tones to play this homage to HAL.

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I found the set convincing, as were the effects. Jon found the effects a little cheesy, but what do you expect from the use of small models instead of big-budget CG? I liked it.

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So I have managed to get this far without revealing any plot points. Good. The plot is interesting and the twist well worth waiting for. Good stuff, especially for a rental.  A steal.

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