After I had watched Mute, Duncan Jones' horrible misfire of a science-fiction film earlier this year, I was undoubtedly turned off from this director. But now that his 2009 film Moon is on Netflix, I decided to give him another shot, thinking maybe his earlier work could prove better. However, even though Sam Rockwell provides one of the only enjoyable parts of this movie, I found many of the same problems throughout this narrative. This film is another tonal mess that does not exactly have a clear message despite its high-concept and creative premise. I really wanted to like this movie and while it is miles better than his 2018 flop, I'm finding it harder and harder to defend not only Jones, but generic science-fiction filmmaking in general.
Moon follows Sam Bell, played by Sam Rockwell, an astronaut who has been assigned to a three-year contract of mining valuable resources on the moon to save Earth from an energy crisis. This script could have proven to be a very interesting take on this monologue-fueled solo film, especially since it was set in a place in space not too far away from comfort. Instead, all of the different characters (or rather, the different Sams) remained very archetypal and did not ever develop or stray from what their typical dialogue would be. This was painfully evident when they first met each other. I feel as if any sane person would go through quite the existential crisis when finding out that they had a physical clone of themselves standing right in front of them. These different versions of Sam remained so nonchalant about the peculiar things that were happening and I could not see where any of their relaxed attitudes came from. The only decent part of these characters happened once it was revealed that none of the Sams on that lunar station were the original one. Rockwell is an incredibly well-rounded actor and he was able to portray each version of Sam a slight bit differently, no matter how dull the versions were. Accompanied by an insignificant vocal performance from Kevin Spacey as Sam's personal robotic friend GERTY, Rockwell's performance may be the only part of this movie that I actually enjoyed.
The plot of this film had so much potential to be more interesting or original, but that was squandered from very early on. The trope of having a single actor's performance in space is so dull at this point and did not help me feel for this character in the slightest. This narrative is not bad by any means, but there seemed to be no attempt at any kind of human message for this character to learn. All in all, the story is just monotonous and could have showcased Jones' writing talent, but at this point, I am beginning to wonder if he has any. I also believe that this story could have been handled much better with a different director and editor. Jones may be an effective writer, giving the audience every predictable piece that they want, but he does not belong as a director. This film is paced very poorly and obstructed along by the tone-deaf writing of the characters. Nicolas Gaster's editing seemed to be straight out of a sitcom, despite this movie having nothing to do with that style. The horrendous transitions and constant dipping to black reminded me of a TV show and I felt as if it was time to go to commercial between every scene in the movie.
Special effects and the design throughout this movie is quite a double-edged sword. The outside shots of the moon's surface and the rovers driving from outpost to outpost was disgusting. The effects looked unfinished and this really took me out of the spectacle aspect of this film. However, the interior design of the main station was very nice. It functioned very well for this story and provided a good playground for Sam Rockwell and his duplicates. This aspect was also handled very well, and the green screen and camera techniques utilized for this doubling of character effect were great. Especially in the choreography and stunt coordination done by Rod Woodruff. The tussle scenes were great to watch and I could not suspect any obvious stunt doubles at all.
Moon is another one of Duncan Jones' four-letter, science-fiction films that have failed to impress me in the slightest. His take on the last man alive trope has not proven to be anything groundbreaking, despite an enthusiastic and lively performance from the adorable Sam Rockwell. I would recommend this film if for any reason you enjoy mediocre space thrillers, but I simply could not care any less about this story.
My Rating: ★★
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