Moon: A review
Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 10:24 am
Take two parts '2001: A Space Oddesy' and one part 'Outland', Sprinkle on a little 'Space 1999' and 'Silent Running' for taste. Add a twist of 'Castaway' and you've got 'Moon', the 2009 sci-fi un-blockbuster.
The main reason we watched this last night is because of our washing machine. Not how we watched it but why. Our son and his girlfriend live in a nice apartment across town. They come here (at our invitation) to do their laundry, because, A: it's free and B: it's free. Usually this is while we are both at work so either one of them is here alone.
The boy has installed teh Netflix on our PS3 so he can watch all his stuff while he's waiting for the spin cycle ect. ect. This came in very handy for us who want to watch a movie we haven't seen before. I spotted this title and suddenly remembered that I wanted to see this at some time, mostly because the miniature effects were supposed to be very good.
Now the story. No spoilers. It really doesn't have a twist ending or something like that, but it's good enough to keep the more interesting details off this review. Somehow I feel like Robert Heinlein wrote the screenplay. It's got some of that gee-whiz sci-fi thing and a darker view of humanity that he was so fond of writing about. He COULD have written it, is what I mean to say.
It's about Sam Bell and his three year contract to work at the energy base on the dark side of the moon. He only has two weeks to go before he is relieved and the next guy takes over. Sam's main job seems to consist of venturing outside and dealing with these large harvesters that drive around on pre-programmed travel paths and scoop up moon dirt. This dirt is then somehow processed into H-3 and then fired back to earth, thus solving 70 percent of the world's energy problems. Since the canisters of this H-3 are only about three feet long and the average diameter of a dinner plate it's hard to see how they could supply us with so much energy, but that's neither here nor there. The point is is that it works.
So this Sam Bell is on the moon, all by himself for three years. His only companion is the robot entity GERTY who is a LOT like the Hal9000, only with a Wal-Mart face and a therapist attitude. And for a robot he gets around better than HAL ever did. Being alone for so long Sam has developed some very odd quirks and quite possibly a body odor problem. Now, at this point you are already seeing plot holes that you could drive a lunar rover through. My biggest issue was how could the energy company be stupid enough to put one single guy (who is responsible for 70 percent of the Earth's energy supply, remember) so far out of touch with everybody else. What if something bad happens to Sam. Which strangely enough, did.
The first bad thing is that the communication relay with Earth is broken so Sam can't talk to anyone else. It's been broken for a long time because supposedly the company is too cheap to fix it. (Too bad the company never installed color monitors on any of the moon-base video terminals either. Talk about cheapskates.) At one point Sam catches GERTY talking live to the company people. Which means that all is not as it seems. GERTY denies this, telling Sam that it's only a recording and what are you doing out of bed, you've just been in an accident, thus spiraling Sam down into a dark level of suspicion and general robot paranoia. When the machines start to lie you know bad things are a-happening. There's been an accident involving one of the huge dirt harvesters and Sam's lunar tow truck. Then things get weird.
The visuals are pretty much generic 2001 spaceship on the inside. They decided to skip the whole 1/6 gravity issue in favor of better drama, though. The gravity seems to be less only when Sam is suited up and outside the base. But then again, it's rather understated. Doesn't matter that much either way. The miniature visuals are much better. As good as you could get anyway, you can't help thinking (Godzilla!) when you see them but I guess that's true for ANY miniature set in a movie. It does give you a feel for how desolate a place the moon really is.
I give this movie four out of five beers for overall interest, storyline goodness and exposing just how low an energy company can be.
THE
EAGLE HAS LANDED
AARDVARK
The main reason we watched this last night is because of our washing machine. Not how we watched it but why. Our son and his girlfriend live in a nice apartment across town. They come here (at our invitation) to do their laundry, because, A: it's free and B: it's free. Usually this is while we are both at work so either one of them is here alone.
The boy has installed teh Netflix on our PS3 so he can watch all his stuff while he's waiting for the spin cycle ect. ect. This came in very handy for us who want to watch a movie we haven't seen before. I spotted this title and suddenly remembered that I wanted to see this at some time, mostly because the miniature effects were supposed to be very good.
Now the story. No spoilers. It really doesn't have a twist ending or something like that, but it's good enough to keep the more interesting details off this review. Somehow I feel like Robert Heinlein wrote the screenplay. It's got some of that gee-whiz sci-fi thing and a darker view of humanity that he was so fond of writing about. He COULD have written it, is what I mean to say.
It's about Sam Bell and his three year contract to work at the energy base on the dark side of the moon. He only has two weeks to go before he is relieved and the next guy takes over. Sam's main job seems to consist of venturing outside and dealing with these large harvesters that drive around on pre-programmed travel paths and scoop up moon dirt. This dirt is then somehow processed into H-3 and then fired back to earth, thus solving 70 percent of the world's energy problems. Since the canisters of this H-3 are only about three feet long and the average diameter of a dinner plate it's hard to see how they could supply us with so much energy, but that's neither here nor there. The point is is that it works.
So this Sam Bell is on the moon, all by himself for three years. His only companion is the robot entity GERTY who is a LOT like the Hal9000, only with a Wal-Mart face and a therapist attitude. And for a robot he gets around better than HAL ever did. Being alone for so long Sam has developed some very odd quirks and quite possibly a body odor problem. Now, at this point you are already seeing plot holes that you could drive a lunar rover through. My biggest issue was how could the energy company be stupid enough to put one single guy (who is responsible for 70 percent of the Earth's energy supply, remember) so far out of touch with everybody else. What if something bad happens to Sam. Which strangely enough, did.
The first bad thing is that the communication relay with Earth is broken so Sam can't talk to anyone else. It's been broken for a long time because supposedly the company is too cheap to fix it. (Too bad the company never installed color monitors on any of the moon-base video terminals either. Talk about cheapskates.) At one point Sam catches GERTY talking live to the company people. Which means that all is not as it seems. GERTY denies this, telling Sam that it's only a recording and what are you doing out of bed, you've just been in an accident, thus spiraling Sam down into a dark level of suspicion and general robot paranoia. When the machines start to lie you know bad things are a-happening. There's been an accident involving one of the huge dirt harvesters and Sam's lunar tow truck. Then things get weird.
The visuals are pretty much generic 2001 spaceship on the inside. They decided to skip the whole 1/6 gravity issue in favor of better drama, though. The gravity seems to be less only when Sam is suited up and outside the base. But then again, it's rather understated. Doesn't matter that much either way. The miniature visuals are much better. As good as you could get anyway, you can't help thinking (Godzilla!) when you see them but I guess that's true for ANY miniature set in a movie. It does give you a feel for how desolate a place the moon really is.
I give this movie four out of five beers for overall interest, storyline goodness and exposing just how low an energy company can be.
THE
EAGLE HAS LANDED
AARDVARK