Worthy but ultimately unsatisfying

Rating: 9/10 (2 September 2009)

Interesting and worthy film but ultimately unsatisfying. I love sci-fi films especially budget indies and I would like to rate the film higher but unfortunately it wasn't for me.
As a reasonably obsessed sci-fi fan I found the film to be a little pedestrian. I have seen many of the set-ups and pay-offs before. For example as a set-up for the fact that Sam Bell is a clones, the newly cloned Sam asks for sunglasses. This is a common clone set-up. New clones wear sunglasses due to the sensitivity of the eyes being used for the first time. As a set-up I found it a little common. There are other examples of recognizable set-ups running throughout the film. I was hoping for bit more ingenuity in the story and better pay- offs.
Most applauded the reasonableness of the science fiction. Cloning and AI on the dark side of the moon is clearly more reasonable than Dunes Guild navigators that fold space-time by consuming vast amounts of a drug called Spice that gives them prescience to see across galaxies and into the future. I have no problem with science and magic. They are not mutually exclusive. As Arthur C.Clarke says "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
When I saw the trailer I was hoping for a Philip K.Dick style existential meltdown. Reality collapsing under the weight of it's pretension. Multiple realities layered on top of each other viciously competing for validation as they unfold into a desolate future. I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. Moon is not that kind of thing.
I don't want to bemoan the film to much. It was excellently acted. The production is very strong. The best use of doppelganger actors I ever seen with the exception of Dead Ringers. The CGI was very strong and painted a vivid picture of the moon. The robot AI voiced by Kevin Spacey is very well portrayed.
For all it's supposed Hard Sci-Fi I still feel it wasn't really hard sci-fi. Why didn't the AI have a face. It was a very sophisticated AI with great reasoning skills and somewhat of a personality of it's own. If the engineers can do this and synthesize flawless human speech why could they not give it a face instead of about 6 or 7 emoticons.
The cloning seemed fishy as well. I can't understand they would not just clone a more drone like character that was happy to serve the company. Why and how would they even attempt to embed the memories, personalities and traits of another human into a clone I don't know.
Good film left me cold. People say it was an adult film. I disagree it was a film for stunted adults lacking imagination and a basic sense of cosmic wonder. Watch Herzogs The Wild Blue Yonder a film for real adults.
Didn't want to be that negative. My opinion is more a counter balance to the positive reviews. I can understand the positive reviews. For the audience that gave it 10 stars you do not see a film like this too often. A real science fiction story. I just hate reality I prefer to follow the Sun-Ra myth :)