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Moon. | February 6, 2010
As I sit here indulging in my second cup of coffee (the first being far too sweet for my liking), I find myself mulling over the film Moon which I viewed last night. Now, I feel that I should warn you that I will be detailing many parts of the film that are quite important to the overall story and could spoil the experience for you. So, if you have yet to see this film (which I highly recommend you see), do not continue reading. Go see it for yourself and then come back to read what I have to say about it. Unless you are fine with the spoilers, that is. It’s your call, obviously.
So, Moon.
"I hope life on Earth is everything you remember it to be."
When first watching the film, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Its complex story was magnificent and though initially slightly confusing, everything is explained and rather easy to follow. The story opens with the protagonist Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) being seen in his highly automated lunar base “Sarang”. He is alone with the exception of his likable robotic assistant GERTY (Voiced by Kevin Spacey) and all incoming communications from Earth have been shut down due to a satellite failure. We learn that he is in his final two weeks of his three year contract with Lunar Industries, a company for which he extracts helium-3 from lunar soil in order to provide clean energy back on Earth. As he is readying himself to be returned home, he begins to hallucinate and while on a routine rover excursion to retrieve some ready canisters of helium-3 from a harvesting machine, he once again sees a hallucination and crashes his rover into the harvester. He later wakes up in the infirmary with GERTY telling him that he has sustained some injuries and has to recover. Going against GERTY’s instructions, Sam leaves his bed and walks in on GERTY in the middle of a live communication with Lunar Industries.
Dun, dun, dun.
Alright, to speed this up a bit, he is informed that he is not allowed to leave the base for any reason but finds a way to talk GERTY into letting him out. He goes back to his crash site to find (wait for it, wait for it) himself still in the rover and barely alive. He brings himself back to the base where he has GERTY care for and revive him… self. It all seems quite confusing until the clone factor is thrown in. So, which one is the clone? Well, they both are. We learn that the Sam that was found in the rover is actually the clone nearing the end of his lifespan and the Sam that had “sustained injuries and has to recover” is the replacement and the “recovery” period is the mandatory clone awakening process and test routine and that the two were never supposed to meet (hence the strict orders for Sam to stay in the base). All the clone’s have a three year life span and toward the end, they seem to grow very sick and are told that they are going to be shipped back to Earth and enter a chamber which puts them to sleep for the three day journey home (they die in said chamber). The clones devise a plan to send one of them back to Earth and when the film ends, we are still left with questions about the success of their scheme (mainly due to the lifespan) and the original Sam Bell. The ending is left for our own interpretation and I personally appreciated that fact.
I went into this film not really knowing what to expect and walked out completely satisfied. This is one of those films that once it sinks in and you’ve thought about it more and more, it becomes greater and greater. The phenomenal performance from Sam Rockwell is a driving force behind the overall feel but my favorite aspect is the questioning of existence. The clones had no knowledge that that their existence was essentially meaningless and once they discover this, it is devastating.
So far, my favorite interpretation of the film comes from the message boards of IMDb. The poster argues that the film can be seen as a religious criticism with the ever present Lunar Industries being perceived as God, the return home/to Earth as Heaven, the instructions and rewards promised as the Bible, and the many pointless messages sent back to earth as prayers.
Whatever you thought the film to be, it is well worth the time and one that should be seen at least twice. It is a marvelous work and it’s a shame that it was overlooked for any Oscar nominations. Seriously, how the hell did the stale and over hyped Avatar (aka Cameron’s cinematic wet dream) get nominated in nine different categories and Moon earn absolutely nothing. Now don’t get me wrong, Avatar was very entertaining and visually fantastic but its weak and recycled story is a huge fault that should not be overlooked. It is solely riding on the coattails of Cameron’s good name and its visual aesthetics. Seriously, what else have you heard about this lackluster film other than that it’s really nice to look at? I can answer that. Nothing. I’m convinced that much of its success and credibility comes from the hype alone. No one wants to be different so why not jump on the bandwagon and claim that it was, “AMAZING!!!! OH MY GOD, AVATAR WAS SOO GOOD!!” Calm it down there, Sparky. It was decent.
Anyway, back to Moon.
If you haven’t seen it, see it. It’s as simple as that. It’s a fantastic film and should be seen and appreciated, if not for the great story, then the amazing acting prowess of Rockwell.
★★★★
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