Moonfall

It definitely seems unfair to criticise a film for being exactly what you expect it to be and, more to the point, exactly what it sets out to be as well.

I’m therefore going to swing that into a positive and declare that Moonfall is the film you’ll be hoping it is when you enter the multiplex, for good or ill.

Sometimes a big hare-brained disaster film is what you want of an evening and what better daft concept than ‘the moon’s falling into the earth because aliens.’ Roland Emmerich is no stranger to the disaster movie but this might just be his most high-concept yet.

It’s a B-movie idea but done on a huge A-list budget with Gravity-esque space scenes and almost Star Wars: Rogue One-alike earth scenes with the looming moon on the horizon. It doesn’t let up once, careening through ever-escalating disaster like a rollercoaster. It’s a little jarring in this respect, we jump fairly quickly from ‘this could happen’ to ‘THIS IS HAPPENING’ and it’s quite hard to feel any emotional attachment to collapsing cities that would likely be climactic scenes in most films but are often just throwaway cutaways here.

Fortunately, everyone involved ‘gets’ the genre and plays perfectly on the line between serious and tongue-in-cheek. Whether you deem it good or bad, the success of the comic book genre has led to the rise of using comedy in blockbusters but the slightly light-hearted tone and banter between colleagues works here just to level the proceedings a little. The lack of traditional ‘hero’ speeches is a positive and the plot does not necessarily take the trodden path.

It actually gets a little too sci-fi for its own good in my opinion. The concept is good enough without having to dive down the ‘alien-tech’ rabbit hole and more time spent with the people on the ground, rather than exploring ‘megastructures’ and the like, would potentially have improved the overall feel.

A big dumb blockbuster film that does exactly what it says on the tin, and is also not a remake, adaptation or sequel no less, deserves a little praise, especially after the critical mauling it’s received. Sure, it ain’t no award winner but a piece of fun entertainment is exactly what the cinema was made for.

3 stars ***