Won't Shoot the Moon

Sam Rockwell by himself for an entire movie sounds pretty boring, so good thing after twenty minutes or so he finds another Sam Rockwell. Tragic hilarity ensues, albeit ends shortly after. MOON is a not-so-shining example of a movie that is so close to being great, that its flaws prove all the more glaring and hindering.

Sam Bell (Rockwell) plays a moon-mining astronaut on the verge of finishing up a three-year stint occupying and operating the H3 harvesters on the far side of the moon—H3 being a (very real) gas that powers 70% of the planet sometime in the future. Unlike current fuel-based companies, the one that employs Sam apparently has dirt under its unethical, yet well-funded, fingernails. Also, I found it nothing short of baffling that a single company not only controls 70% of the world’s energy, but that they have had such a rough fiscal year that they can only employ one person on the moon at a time.

But whatever. I’ve tossed away science fiction set-ups before; they’re not supposed to be completely realistic, even “hard” science fiction. However this movie drops the proverbial moon rock several more times. Sam with just weeks left in his contract, starts hallucinating visions we’ll never understand and gets involved in an accident. Something happens and bam, there’s another Sam. Who is the hallucination? Are either of them? Is this mysterious? (Answers: Neither, No and No) As the plots thickens, twists and gets ugly (not unlike Jared Fogle) Sam and the other Sam fail to ask the most obvious questions such as “Who was before us?” “Who is after us?” and even “Why are we here?” Instead the second act is filled with the character(s) trying to figure out if there is a conspiracy, to which the audience is emphatically aware.

I’d like to compare MOON to another low-budge, recent hard science fiction movie called SUNSHINE. SUNSHINE had problems, but it also went above and beyond any reasonable expectations of cinematography. The movie just looked phenomenal. MOON contents itself to a white, gray and occasionally off-white color palate that just remains flat and lifeless. Imagine a movie taking place in K-Mart. Like SUNSHINE, though, MOON was able to have a anthropomorphic main computer that proved the friend and foil to the astronauts. Amazingly both movies are able to steer the computers away from the near-retro bit-character H.A.L. and yet unique from each other.

Kevin Spacey provides the voice for the computer (Gerty) in MOON and to which I’m willing to give him more credit than in nearly any other film. Gerty manages to be a frustratingly realistic companion to Sam, making their dynamic the best social commentary in the movie. Gerty is genuinely programmed to help Sam but often gets in the way or repeatedly proposes the same solutions. Also, robotic compassion at this level is still quite limited as Gerty accidentally roughs up Sam pretty well. Automated customer service in a physical sense is a very scary and annoying thing (“I don’t remember my password! Let me talk to a real person! No, I did not say espanol!”). Basically computers with programed personalities will always be stupid.

I would usually describe an unengaging ninety-minute movie as merciful short, but in this case I was so convinced a larger point was going to be made (or at least an action sequence with a plus-three body count), that I was almost caught off guard by the brisk ending.

Unlike some space movies, MOON is neither good nor bad enough to be fun or even reach a mildly memorable level. But I guess we don't have to worry about drilling on the moon anytime soon; what with no wildlife in the area to kill, no hurricanes to reek havoc and natives to exploit, where's the fun?