When did science fiction movies get to be good? Between a Star Trek movie that might as well have been an action thriller, a wave of shoddy, childish Star Wars films, and the assorted dystopian joke-film (read Matrix 2 and 3), I’ve always felt that Science Fiction and Film were too dangerous to mix. Older movies like Logan’s Run were almost good, but either dated themselves very quickly or were just silly to begin with.
Moon, directed by Duncan Jones (David Bowie’s son), is excellent. It’s not kind of good. It’s really good. Good length (hour and a half), good acting, gorgeous, engaging, thought-provoking. Slowly paced, but never boring. Very subtle at times, never too heavy-handed. It’s probably the best film I’ve seen this year.
Sam Rockwell (I know him as Zaphod from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) plays Sam Bell, a solitary technician on a Helium 3 mining station on the Moon. His three year mission is to maintain the station and then go home to his wife and kid. He’s joined by a robot (voiced by Kevin Spacey I think) who helps out with chores around the station.
The film’s beauty comes from the moon and the station itself. Sleek, futuristic decorations correspond nicely against the sheer, lifelessness of the Lunar surface. The rocks between tossed up by the helium miners is just perfect.
I won’t give the story away but Sam Bell gets twice the screen time of most lead characters. *Wink *Wink. The ending is both happy, sad, and intelligent, perhaps the rarest thing of all, science fiction movie, or otherwise. Sadly, Moon was a limited release, but it’s on DVD now. Pick it up.
For those who haven’t been on this field long enough – I do know that the internet isn’t the most reliable resource for informations. but for sure I can say the author is right, however strange it may look