Moonfall Review

“Moonfall,” another disaster movie from director Roland Emmerich, released on Feb. 4 with a large budget of $140 million. To say that Emmerich is familiar with the genre is an understatement. Since 1999’s “Independence Day”, Emmerich has gone on to direct its sequel, “Independence Day: Resurgence”, “2012” and “The Day After Tomorrow,” all of which deal with end-of-the-world scenarios.

Though Emmerich has cornered the movie-making market with these types of films, I can’t say he’s done most of these particularly well. “Moonfall '' is another movie disaster.

My main draw to the film was one man and one man only: Patrick Wilson. Wilson has been one of my favorite actors for a few years now. Most famous for portraying Ed Warren in “The Conjuring” franchise, Wilson is a charming actor. I enjoyed his presence in “Moonfall”. Though his character is extremely cliche, essentially a has-been who needs to save the day, his acting was solid throughout the movie.

John Bradley was also a standout in my eyes. His character felt like the emotional center of the film. I wouldn’t say he’s the most complex character of all time, however he definitely had more development than most other characters present in the film. Bradley also had some great, humorous line-deliveries throughout the movie. His character got quite a few laughs from me, especially given his “fish-out-of-water” predicament throughout the film. His character arc, going from a conspiracy theorist who no one believes to a hero that NASA needed in order to save earth, was a satisfying one.

Though I don’t think Emmerich is great in the writing department, I have to give credit to him with visuals. “Moonfall” uses its massive, $140 million budget well; the film felt expensive. He definitely knows how to direct complex destruction sequences. The use of wide shots gave the film a large scope that is needed when capturing outer space. From a technical standpoint, the film is definitely competent. The VFX, cinematography and editing were all fairly good.

The main problem with the film is its focus or lack thereof. I don’t think Emmerich knew exactly where to take the film; it doesn’t have a clear identity. It evolves from being a character study of Patrick Wilson’s character, Brian Harper, to being a conspiracy-theory-centric film at another point, then it finishes being a film that warns about the dangers of artificial intelligence. This is all transpiring during a fairly standard disaster movie premise, and by the ending, I felt that the story had really gone off the rails.

“Moonfall” produced one of the most head-scratching story diversions I’ve ever seen. I think Emmerich and his writing team got a bit too ahead of themselves and reached for the stars prematurely (no pun intended). They took an already fleshed-out concept (the Moon falling onto Earth) and continued to add extra elements that simply convoluted the story. The artificial intelligence additions to the story also killed the pacing. This 130 minute film felt at least 20 minutes too long.

These issues all revolve around poor writing, of course. That’s typically the problem with most of these disaster/action-heavy films. Main characters are underdeveloped and all the side characters are kept at arm’s reach in order to give the main character’s something to motivate them. I understand that most people watching these films just want to see things blow up and people miraculously survive these disasters. However, if you’re only going to focus on the action and spectacle, then you must be able to make the premise stream-lined. The premise wasn’t stream-lined in the slightest once the film wrapped up.

Overall, “Moonfall” had some great visuals and spectacle due to its large budget. However, poor character development, pacing and story elements really held it back. Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry and John Bradley couldn’t save a weak script.

4/10