Nationwide: Friday, February 04, 2022
Lionsgate
In Moonfall, a mysterious force knocks the Moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know it. With mere weeks before impact and the world on the brink of annihilation, NASA executive and former astronaut Jo Fowler (Academy Award® winner Halle Berry) is convinced she has the key to saving us all - but only one astronaut from her past, Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson, "Midway") and a conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman (John Bradley, "Game of Thrones") believe her. These unlikely heroes will mount an impossible last-ditch mission into space, leaving behind everyone they love, only to find out that our Moon is not what we think it is.
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Gregory M. - Rated it 3 out of 5
"Moonfall" In "Moonfall", a mysterious force knocks the Moon from it's orbit and hurls it on a collision course with Earth, and with life as we know it. With only weeks before impact and the world on the brink of annihilation, NASA executive and former astronaut Jocinda Fowler (Halle Berry) has an idea that can save the planet. But only a man from her past, Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) and lovable conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman (John Bradley) believes her. These unlikely heroes mount an impossible final mission into space, leaving behind, perhaps forever, their loved ones, and discover an incredible secret about Earth’s only natural satellite. Jocinda Fowler is wicked smart. She’s a woman who’s surviving in a man's world. You won't find a woman in that position at NASA who isn't extremely intelligent, strong, and has a real sense of self about her. Fowler is very willful; she's had to survive in this world and hold her own. We love women and characters like this because she’s strong in her work but she's also a mother. Fowler makes NASA realize their sole option is to send the only team that’s ever been up there that can maybe solve this problem, and that includes Harper. A central figure in Fowler’s life is Brian Harper, who was once a close friend but from whom she’s now estranged. Fowler and Harper’s relationship has it's own texture and history, which are integral to the story. Fowler was Brian’s ‘work wife', and he was her ‘work husband’; they were that close. Then something happens, which leads to misunderstanding and confusion. He takes the fall and that's the beginning of the unraveling of their relationship. We visit them again and they've a chance to come to terms with what happened. They realize that neither was right or wrong; it was just a very unfortunate situation that was hard to explain, and they went their separate ways because of it. Brian’s in a pretty terrible place. He’s jobless and unreliable. He’s a former astronaut who struggles with what he once witnessed during a mission in space. He’s more of a rogue scientist than a typical, by-the-book guy, which is how he differs from Fowler. She still has a government job, which he resents, and he carries guilt for what happened on this failed mission years earlier, which got him kicked out of NASA. His marriage and relationship with his son are broken. Harper has a lot of personal problems and demons that he must find a way to overcome. The third member of the triumvirate, KC Houseman, is a very funny character. Houseman is a conspiracy-addled and discredited scientist, who nonetheless plays a key role in the desperate mission to save the Earth. Houseman doesn’t have any friends. He’s also intellectually isolated because he collaborates with people who don’t have any time for the things that he believes in. He’s always trying to communicate his passions and theories, but nobody’s interested. We find him completely alone in the world, searching for a point of contact, a kindred spirit, an ear that wants to listen to what he has to say. The reality is that Brian is the only one who has seen what’s up there and understands the nature of this threat. Fowler initially doesn’t see it. Houseman is one of the few people who believes Harper’s account of the failed mission. He has his own conspiracy theories, which aren’t that far from the truth, as it turns out. All KC needed was the right person to listen to what he has to say and then he really comes into his own. All of his youthfulness, his skill set and abilities, the things that he’s best at in the world, were lying dormant waiting for that one spark that's going to allow him to make a difference. So he and Brian find common ground in being outcasts. They become a team because they've this mutual understanding of what it feels like to not be listened to; that’s when we see him really blossom. Fowler is there because she's an expert in navigation and must be the one to guide the mission and make sure they get where they’re going, while Harper is the only one who can fly the shuttle. KC represents the everyday average guy on the flight of his life. He's not an astronaut, and has nothing to do with NASA, but he has this brilliant mind that’s produced the idea that the Moon is an enormous, self-supporting artificial construct, known as megastructure. Fowler and Harper realize they need him because, if in fact it's a megastructure, then they’re going to want a megastructurist with them when we get there. KC brings a lot of humor to the movie. Sonny (Charlie Plummer) is Harper’s son, whose relationship with his dad is troubled. No matter why a dad is absent from his kid’s life, it doesn’t matter to the child. Harper wasn’t there when Sonny needed him. Harper is constantly letting him down because he’s battling his own demons, and failing. Sonny’s not the most strait-laced kid, either; a little of his dad has rubbed off on him and that’s why they butt heads. Harper can only hope that Sonny will be a better man than him. Throughout the film you see Sonny make those strides. They both have a mission in this film. Sonny has this whole resentment against his father and mother, but he also loves them very much. Harper’s ex-wife is Brenda Lopez (Carolina Bartczak), and Sonny is their child. Their marriage didn’t work out because, Harper was overcome by his failures at NASA. She was forced to leave him to protect young Sonny, as Harper succumbed to depression and alcoholism. In the early 1960s, U.S. president John F. Kennedy implored Americans to go to the Moon, not because it was easy, but because it was hard. His hopes and dreams for this impossible task became reality in 1969, with the Apollo 11 lunar mission, a true 'giant leap for mankind'. On July 20, 1969, NASA’s Apollo 11 with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the lunar surface. Many conspiracy theorists question whether the Moon landing actually happened/was real in part due to 2 minutes when Apollo 11 went radio-silent. Shortly after the Lunar Module 'Eagle' landed on the Moon, communications were cut short, leading to a 2 minutes gap in radio transmissions. The loss of signal between the astronauts and NASA has been widely speculated, controversially debated and talked about, fueling, as well as leading to numerous conspiracy theories of what might have transpired/occurred during that time. Between 1969 and 1972, Apollo astronauts placed seismometers as part of their missions at their landing sites around the Moon. Those seismometers recorded moonquakes, and the Moon was described as 'ringing like a bell' during some of those quakes. The phrase was brought to popular attention, when Apollo 12 deliberately crashed the Ascent Stage of it's Lunar Module onto the Moon's surface. NASA reported that the Moon rang like a bell for almost an hour, leading to arguments that it must be hollow like a bell. Lunar seismology experiments since then have shown that the lunar body has shallow moonquakes that act differently from quakes on Earth, due to differences in texture, type and density of the planetary strata, but there's no scientific evidence of any large empty space inside the body. The Apollo 12, 14, 15, and 16 instruments faithfully radioed data back to Earth until they were switched off in 1977. Artemis is the name of NASA's program to return astronauts to the lunar surface. During the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. NASA will use their research and findings on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap, sending astronauts to Mars. The uncrewed test flight for NASA's Artemis program is expected to launch in 2022. In total, there are 3 Artemis missions scheduled with Artemis II carrying a crew of astronauts around the Moon and Artemis III landing astronauts on the lunar surface. But, posits "Moonfall", that world-changing event hid a secret that would, in 2022, see the Moon come to us. In addition to scale and scope, Roland Emmerich's work always presents a cornucopia of fun and powerful emotions. In the film’s opening attack scene, we're looking at nothing; it's all imagination. These movies are quite different from other movies because we really have to be able to commit to our imagination. Humanity faces the true and absolute dark side of the Moon, as entire cities are evacuated, moving to higher ground offers the only chance of survival, and civil unrest is pervasive and destructive in once unimaginable ways. It’s Earth’s sixth extinction-level event. For "Moonfall", a theory that described the Moon as something vastly different from what we learned in high school science class. There are some who believe that the Moon is not a natural object. What happens if this object falls down to Earth? Of course, we would have to figure out how to stop it, creating characters who embark on a mission to the Moon to save our planet, as well as the families who stay behind and struggle to survive the cataclysms that come with the Moon’s collision course with Earth. But the human spirit won’t give up so quickly. There are always people who exceed their potential, and Hollywood likes to tell stories about ordinary people in absolutely extraordinary situations. This cosmic event brings them together and leads them to understand that family is the most important thing in our lives. The film wants to make people laugh and cry with the movie. It’s cool for an audience to have that first little laugh early on, so they know it’s okay to have fun, too. Once again, Emmerich pushes the boundaries of the sci-fi genre, this time by exploring his vision of the Moon’s unique megastructure physics. The film shares the premise and gives us a basic idea of what will be happening, but we know all too well that the fully rendered scene will be more vivid than we can visualize. But we're forced to use our imagination. It's a really unusual way of working. We've to trust in what's going to happen on the other side because we literally are looking at nothing much but some visuals on a screen that are kind of simulating what we might see with color tone and flashes of light. A movie can change the way that you look at a certain subject and open your mind, even if it’s a big, fun, splashy spectacle. "Moonfall" does that in a couple unusual ways, it brings up the worry of AI and machines rising against you; there's an increasing fear. We all have this fascination about the end of the world, what that would look like, and if we’d live through it. In the end, Emmerich has crafted a disaster movie with spectacular visual effects. (2,5) Written by Gregory Mann