Really Great Flick

Rating: 10/10 (15 July 2009)

I was ridiculously fortunate to see this film at NASA JSC, with Duncan Jones providing pre and post movie commentary. We did try to have a brief discussion about Helium-3 and the lunar regolith, after he teased us about being worried that he had made all sorts of scientific errors and expected to be ripped apart with technical questions.
It's a great movie that dabbles in a little morality, and the human psyche. I knew nothing about it going in, and I thought the twist was excellent. I was really glad Duncan Jones was there afterwards for commentary. I'm looking forward to taking some friends to see it (so I can watch it again!) and I really can't wait to get the DVD with the commentary. It did get just a touch racy - but nothing standard TV doesn't show, and of course the language is fairly strong. We did have an age range from infant to elderly in our audience, and Duncan Jones was kind enough to tell the parents before the movie started (and he apologized - he was so sweet). So younger children beware.
That being said, here come some "spoilers" I guess...
As a sci-fi nerd, I loved the nods to the classic sci-fi. I thought GERTY's parallel to HAL 9000 was very clever. I also like the resemblance of the communication towers to the obelisk.
Some interesting tidbits: The ghost figure of the girl on the moon is supposed to be Eve, Sam is having one of a few 'twin-moments' with his original self.
The name of the base is written in Korean, and if I remember correctly it means "Love" - a tribute to Jones' then-girlfriend.
Read the default Sam-clone's T-shirts. ^_^
Jones gave a lot of thought to the design and layout of the base, (though I didn't get to ask how the base maintains artificial gravity ^_~.\/.)