“Moon” (2009) review
by V.E. on August 10th, 2010
filed under entertainment, recap/review
Okay, so Moon (wiki) wasn’t bad. It wasn’t horror, as my father and I suspected at the beginning, and that’s a good thing, as I don’t do well with horror. My dad’s sister had given him the movie as a gift and said, “Watch this” as if she knew he’d like it. Well, it had been brought up before but was always out-voted for something else until this past Sunday night.
The story follows Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), a man living on the dark side of the Moon sometime in the future who repairs the machines which extract helium-3 from the lunar surface. He’s alone at the base save for his robot assistant, GERTY 
(voiced by Kevin Spacey) and has left his wife, pregnant with their first child when he leaves, on Earth while he completes his 3-year contract on the Moon. When the movie begins, he has just two weeks left in his contract. Cue plot.
My dad had some issues with the science in the science fiction, but I decided to suspend my disbelief until the end. Well, by the end I was like, “WTF is this?” But in a good way, if that makes sense. Rockwell must’ve had a hell of a time talking to himself (which his character does a lot, as the main plot involves possible clones and weirdness). He literally carries the entire film since he’s basically the only one in it, GERTY notwithstanding. Near the end, my dad said it reminded him of The Prestige, but that’s a movie I haven’t seen, so the comparison will have to wait for another time.
Speaking of, GERTY had a striking resemblance to HAL, though the robot in this film was much less antagonistic than I remember HAL being in 2001. Moon is not a robots vs. humans film, something for which I’m thankful, even though I kept expecting it would turn into that at any moment. (Remember, I had no idea what the movie was about before I watched it; I didn’t even get to read the back of the DVD case.) GERTY is, however, one of the most patronizing robot characters I’ve ever seen, but it proves itself when it becomes clear that it actually does want to help Bell midway through the movie (and then proceeds to do so).
There are two female characters in the film, Sam Bell’s wife and young daughter, Tess and Eve, though their parts are so small it might not even be worth mentioning. It safe to say it fails the Bechdel Test.
Overall, it was an interesting case study in What To Talk About If You Ever Find A Clone Of Yourself. If you like sci-fi and have some time, it’s not a bad watch. Don’t expect any great revelations, but I admit it made me want to know more about what happened after the credits roll than was implied by the ending scene.
