From: mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at (Markus Stumptner)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.movies
Subject: Re: "moon 44" (was re: anothe
Date: 28 Dec 92 13:12:21 GMT
Organization: DB and ES Subdivision, TU Vienna

From article <1992Dec26.2756.2619@dosgate>, by robert.winkler@canrem.com (robert winkler):
> I started out so friendly 'cause I'm planning to kill you for you critic
> of Moon 44.

You'd have an awful lot of killing to do then, the film is such a dog
that I think it will be hard to find anyone who likes it.

>     Third, it's NOT two bunch of prisoners, one half is macho, the other
> is pencil-geek - it's ONE bunch of macho prisoners and ONE bunch of
> specially gifted teenagers (computer wizards, I think), 

Read this again, aloud.  Do you realize how ridiculous and stereotyped
this sounds?  Not your fault, btw - it's the film's fault for starting
out from such an assumption.

> who all had a
> record, but the children are under contract

Actually, they also were offered the contract to get rid of their
record and its consequences.  Note: not only are they a completely
homogeneous bunch of teenage delinquent computer wizards (an idea
which in itself is so cliched as to make one weep), but there is also
nothing that actually requires this qualification.

>     Fourth, there's no "unexplained" loyalty toward Parre, 

I left out all of this discussion.  I tend to agree with you on that
count.  Unfortunately, it does not save the film.

> just as there
> are no more logical and technical flaws than in an average (but still
> good) s/f movie.

Like fighting space invaders with helicopters, right.  

> Why the
> geeks & the prisoners are matched is that the prisoners have the
> physical structure (& are expendable enough) to pilot the helicopters,

I did not know that huge bulging muscles are required to pilot a
helicopter.

> while the geeks have the gift to navigate them by radio. 

...just like the teenage computer wizards in your run-of-the mill
airport control tower here on Earth, isn't it?  

>     As for the homo-erotic atmosphere, it may be emphasized a bit too
> much (yes, they DO show a rape, although not explicitly), but
> unfortunately the movie's only realistic in this respect. 

Sorry, but the ham-handed way in which the film dealt with it simply
does not work.  You can see the conflict coming from miles away, it is
strung out to squeeze every last ounce of effect out of it, and when
the bad guy is finally killed, there is only relief that the plot can
go on.  Finally, it's simply not convincing.  Your (justified)
comments on real-world prisons notwithstanding, this is not the same
situation.  You don't deal with somebody in this manner if you know
that tomorrow your life will be in his hands.

>     IMHO the movie is very similar to Outland, made with Connery, at
> least in atmosphere. The special f/x, mattes & models are pretty good
> too.

The station and ships are not bad (from the outside).  The
helicopters, judging from the huge bolts sticking out of their skin,
are vintage steamship age, about 1880.  The idea of controlling huge
autonomous interstellar faster-than-light mining robots across
lightyears by plugging a chipcard into a computer (one computer per
robot, mind you) is simply bogus.  Also, why the robots should take
all the mining equipment back to Earth with them is beyond me.  The
consoles on which those teeny wizards work require them to swivel
their seats around by 180 degrees all the time <Expletive deleted>.
The graphics on their screens are unbelievably crude.  Moon 44 was not
that cheap, they could have gotten something better than CGA or
whatever that was.

Outland had its problems (predictable plot, fairly anticlimactic
showdown, people exploding on decompression, the usual 300 baud
chattering CRT terminals, and lots of minor stuff), but what I liked
about it was that it made the environment, life aboard the station,
believable.  Likening it to Moon 44 on those counts is an insult.
-- 
Markus Stumptner                                mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at
University of Technology Vienna                 vexpert!mst@relay.eu.net
Paniglg. 16, A-1040 Vienna, Austria             ...mcsun!vexpert!mst
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.movies