Moonfall

Ten Second Review: Although the tone isn’t quite right, Moonfall is a lot of fun. In an Oscar season lacking fun, this might fill a gap for lots of filmgoers.

I saw the trailer for this film far too many times. I might not have noticed had it not been a particularly odd trailer. The tone seemed inconsistent, the jokes felt like they could either be really funny or fall on silent audiences and the editing really seemed to give it all away. I honestly saw it like 10 times in trips to the cinema and each time I couldn’t decide how it made me feel.

Brian is a disgraced astronaut. When a mission went wrong, he was shafted with the blame, but when he happens upon an amateur investigator with a moon theory, he’ll do his best to get back in touch with NASA. After all, the moon is falling out of orbit!

My questions about the trailer were answered and it turns out it was just a bit of an odd film. The tone was a little confused, the jokes were kind of funny, but it certainly did not give it all away. That being said, I enjoyed it (I think).

The story it self was fun; it balanced the vibe of a Reddit thread with the stylings of a late naughties disaster film. It offered enough to show how seriously it did not want to be taken seriously. The only shame was that it didn’t quite commit to a type of film. The moments where they played off the ridiculousness with absolute sincerity were really funny. The military talking about nuking the moon with a straight face is just quite silly. And the moments when they just clearly tell jokes are also quite well written. It felt current while still having that classic disaster movie thing going on.

Its weakness was when it was doing actual sincerity. I don’t need to have a heartfelt serious storyline getting lost in among other narrative lines. Those characters serve a purpose but following them too much only adds to runtime rather than successfully developing them past just being accessories to the main protagonists. These “sincere” lines really clash with what the film was doing well, which was being a bit ridiculous, but in a likeable way.

This movie is dumb. I don’t think it’s intention is to be the next Space Odyssey, I think it’s meant to be a bit of fun. If you take your cinema too seriously, you might not enjoy it, but if you don’t live too seriously and like your films the same, there’s something to enjoy here. I wish it had picked a tone and cut some of the accessory plot lines, that would have elevated it a fair amount, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it.