MOONFALL (2022) – Another disaster of global proportion from Roland Emmerich

Some director’s names are synonymous with a certain type of movies. Roland Emmerich is one such director who have produced and directed large scale disaster epics like Independence Day, 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, and Godzilla (1998 version). Moonfall is his latest addition to his list of disasters (pun intended). Of course one cannot really blame Roland for making such movies because they do have an audience and can be fun to watch when done well no matter how preposterous the plot may be. Sometimes the more preposterous the better!!

Moonfall does have a preposterous plot which has our moon somehow hurtling towards earth on a collision course. Not exactly a very original preposterous plot for a disaster movie as others with similar themes have been made such as the recent ”Don’t Look Up” in which a comet is a collision course with earth, and ”Armageddon”. This premise provides the excuse for showing some major destruction at a global scale but somehow Roland seem to be on a tighter budget this time. The scenes of destruction were impressive no doubt but ran too briefly and appeared focus on a few American soil this time, often, not even the usual tendencies to show iconic sites being destroyed. The smaller budget was probably the reason why Roland could only muster two relatively ”big” names Halle Berry and Patrick Wilson to the cast. To be fair, they did a pretty good job in keeping things entertaining with their on screen tongue in cheek battering in the midst of a global disaster. Then there is John Bardley, type-cast into giving another version of his Samwell Tarly character in Game of Thrones. Not that this is totally a bad thing since we all miss Sam in Game of Thrones anyway.

The best thing going for Moonfall for me, was its outstanding sound effects which was put into good use during the many outlandish scenes. This helped to make up for the CGI effects which looked a bit cartoonish at times and often too far-fetched to be taken seriously.

Usually the story and plot of such movies are not important. It stays true to the formula by having the key characters race against time in order to save the lives of their loved ones who somehow got separated from each other. The rationale behind what caused the moon to get out of orbit into its collision course with earth is quite simply absurd. So absurd that it even endeavour to explain mankind’s origins! I think Roland Emmerich have gotten a bit above his head here thinking he was making some kind of ”2001: A Space Odyssey”. Someone needs to tell him he is no Stanley Kubrick.

Moonfall may not be good, but in all honestly it was not so bad to the extend that it was totally unwatchable. It can be a reasonably fun watch as long as we keep our expectations low. Just sit back, relax, don’t think too much and enjoy the ride.