Pays homage to sci-fi classics of the 70's

Rating: 10/10 (25 October 2009)

First of all, I didn't know that the director of this movie was David Bowie's son, Duncan Jones, until I read about it in here. It wouldn't have mattered, a good film is a good film, no matter who did it.
This film reminds me heavily of sci-fi classics from the late 60's and 70's. I was reminded of "2001", "Silent Running", and even the TV show "Space 1999". This might be because I think the special effects were achieved through model-making like they used to in the 70's, rather than computer CGI as they do nowadays. It shows that there's still a place for model-making, and in certain circumstances it looks more realistic than CGI.
The filmmaker even uses our knowledge of these past films against us. For example, we're all used to the evil computer HAL on 2001. So when we watch the computer on this base, GERTY, we have certain assumptions about its motives, and thus we're surprised by its actual motives in the end. Even the use of the actor Kevin Spacey, as the voice of GERTY aids in the illusion, since we know his roles from the past where he's played some very strange characters, makes us think this is going to be similar to one of his old roles.
Sam Rockwell's performance was excellent, as Sam Bell. And we shouldn't forget Robin Chalk's performance as a young Sam Bell. I would say that the actors, Rockwell, Spacey, Chalk were actually part of making the special effects illusion work.