Moon – 2009

September 6, 2010 by JT
Filed under Film Reviews

The first few shots of Moon feel like any normal run of the mill sci-fi. There’s shots of the space station with the earth off in the distance, shots of computers and consoles and of course shots of a lone astronaut.

Shot in just 33 days Moon is one of the more eye opening sci-fi films for 2009. It has a Space Odyssey feel about it as the camera pans its way through white crisp interiors and what are seemingly chunky and dated equipment.

Even though this is set in 2024 you’d be forgiven it might have been set years earlier.

Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet’s power problems.

What starts out as seemingly inauspicious hallucinations, after Sam is involved in a crash in his rover turn into something much more. As we don’t ask ourselves what might be wrong with Sam but who the hell he is?

The script is tight and seeing as Sam is really the only major star alongside talking computer GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey) director Duncan Jones does well to build dramatic, emotional and thought provoking moments.

If a 33 day shoot seems small then it has a budget too match as it only cost around $5 million to make, and when you see the shots of the space rover trundling over the Moon’s rough surface you can see exactly what that money might have been used for.

It might not have been up there with many of the biggest blockbusters in 2009 but one thing is for sure, Moon is an enjoyable trip into the unknown.

View the Trailer