Have You Been Watching...? Moonfall (2022)

Have you been watching…? Moonfall

There’s nothing quite like an apocalypse movie. The spectacle of life as we know it coming to an end. It’s even better when it is some kind of natural catastrophe, so it is with this in mind, I watched Moonfall, directed by epic disaster movie director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day).

The movie features horror franchise “The Conjuring” star Patrick Wilson as disgraced astronaut Brian Harper, Oscar-winner Halle Berry as astronaut Jo Fowler and Game of Thrones star John Bradley as conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman. Michael Pena appears as Harper’s ex-wife’s new beau, and cinema legend Donald Sutherland appears as “Holdenfield”, although this is nothing more than a cameo.

The plot, well it’s exactly what it says on the tin. The moon begins to fall towards earth. How this set of circumstances occurs is a conspiracy theorist's dream. I won’t spoil it, but it’s not the natural disaster we think it is. As if the notion of the moon falling to earth isn’t enough, the plot is filled with padding and melodrama, relegating the spectacle of what’s happening to second place for most of the first half of the movie. There are lots of set-pieces, but none of them seem to hold any real danger. We don’t really see the impact of these spectacular disaster’s impacts on ordinary people (never mind our main cast!) Sadly, the CGI isn’t great either. For example, the tide and sea levels rise in one scene, clearly killing goodness knows how many people, but our cast move up to the upper floors of the hotel they are in and have a good night’s sleep in the rooms, barely acknowledging the sheer scale of death and disaster around them. When the movie shifts into it’s second half, the plot just gets worse.

I can forgive not concentrating on the death and destruction around them as long as the film has a sense of fun about it, but this doesn’t even have THAT. It’s a mish mash of ideas, thrust together. Bradley steals the show as Houseman and is sometimes the sole beacon of light in most scenes he is in. Pena is great playing a character that I think the audience is not supposed to like, but is quite endearing and one of the best characters in it, making his story arc’s resolution all the more heartbreaking.

Overall, I wanted to LOVE this movie. It should have been brilliant. The script could probably have done with a few more passes, and I’d have happily lost 30 mins or so in exchange for a couple of truly GREAT sequences. I feel the movie is a missed opportunity and a huge disappointment. I’ve since read it was a box-office flop when it came out and gets mixed to negative reviews, and I’m afraid I have to agree with that. I hate to be so down on people’s hard work but I can’t imagine what possessed anyone involved to have wanted to participate. Unless it was like I thought: the premise sounded great, until they saw the script and by then the ink was dry on the contract….. 

Emmerich has made some GREAT movies, and while they all don’t make the best scientific sense, they contain a great sense of adventure and fun, like Independence Day, Stargate, 2012, the Day After Tomorrow, even Godzilla. Sadly, Moonfall falls into the same category as Independence Day: Resurgence...just BAD

Year – 2022

Availability – currently streaming on Amazon Prime

HYBW rating –  3/10