Great shows being the way they are, we can’t afford to turn our backs on those with enough personality and shamelessness to steer clear of generic mediocrity. Although they may be imperfect, there is something appreciable in those rare projects that decide to embrace the chaladura as a method to breathe life beyond very worked images from the special effects.
For this very reason, we must appreciate that there are always crazy geniuses -or simply crazy- like Roland Emmerich, who has turned disaster films into auteur cinema, especially since his films seem to be among the few capable of having their own personality in the panorama. An example of this is ‘Moonfall’, his last film that performed poorly at the box office but now has a golden opportunity via streaming with its arrival on Prime Video.
The moon comes to Earth and I with these hairs
There is apparently not too much complexity in the film’s premise. A strange force is causing the moon to move out of its orbit, heading dangerously towards earth. Not only is there the problem of a gigantic collision, but in the process we also see huge changes in the climate, in the flow of the planet’s water and more phenomena of great magnitude.
To stop him, we have a trio of protagonists: a former NASA executive astronaut (Halle Berry), another former astronaut disgraced for warning of a threat that is now verifiable (Patrick Wilson), and a conspiracy theory obsessed (John Bradley). Three forces with which Emmerich wants to value the sacrifice and commitment of heroic individuals above caricatured institutions as much as possible to make the idea clear.
Beyond that propaganda stink of multimillionaire entrepreneurs who invest in crazy pots to go to space, the film is kept up its sleeve a couple of surprises in its second half that establish it as a crazy sci-fi artifact. In that section where we see the phenomenon that causes the movement of the moon explained, the director launches a lot of ideas and ambitions that could have an interesting development in a sequel.
‘Moonfall’: mindless space fun
Such a sequel does not seem likely, given the poor performance during its theatrical release, but this does not mean that the film remains as hollow as the moon – or, at least, that theory is ascribed to it. There are amazing space sequences, there are stretches of trademark catastrophic disaster and also some mindless fun like Emmerich’s films hadn’t looked like for a long time.
Is it so enjoyable all the time? No, not always, but when he does, he manages to give the film a character that prevents it from falling into the mechanized process of most blockbusters. Its imperfection is at the height of its chaos, but that does not stop it from being joyous entertainment, with impressive high points. A very adequate investment of your time.