Renews the audiences' belief that GOOD sci-fi films are still alive...

Rating: 8/10 (17 January 2010)

Sci-fi is alive...and kicking! Watching Duncan Jones' surprisingly good sci-fi film "Moon", I can now confirm that Hollywood can still produce a profound and moving sci-fi story, and that it takes the work of a true creative crew to produce it. In an era where sci-fi films are an excuse to attack audiences with a long and uninvolving demonstration of special effects, Jones attempts to revive the genre and add an involving story and well-developed characters to it, proving that special effects aren't everything, and that the old days of "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Solaris" still have an effect. Like a famous critic said, truly good sci-fi films aren't dead, they're just hiding.
"Moon" introduces us to a near future, where humans have found an important source of energy called Helium-3, which comes from the moon and is trapped in lunar rocks; these rocks can be shipped to Earth and can be harvested to release a potent and natural power source which helps over 70% of the planet in an ecologically-benefit way. On the moon, there's a space station that controls the machines' harvesting of Helium-3 rocks, and this space station is manned by a single man called Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell, in a surprisingly effective performance). Sam is completely alone in the station, and he supervises the harvesting and the well-being of the station, fixing the problems which seldom take place, making sure it all goes according to plan and sending periodical reports to Lunar Industries on Earth, updating them on the situation on the moon. The only company Sam has are the casual recorded messages he receives from Earth, and the ever-present Gerty (voiced by Kevin Spacey), the station's computer, a sort of Hal 2000.
Sam is incredibly lonely, of course. He's spent three years living by himself at the moon station, talking to computers. The film is effective and troubling at showing us the critical mental state of this man, who's practically isolated from human contact, and who confirms, day by day, the meaninglessness of his personality; he's desensitized and goes about his daily routine monotonously, sadly, the wear being most apparent in his face. There's a moment early in the film where we see him get a recorded message from his wife and his young daughter; the amount of emotion and heart-break in this scene is the work of a genius, and we just KNOW that this is more than just a sci-fi story, but a true exploration into human emotion.
On one of his outings supervising the harvesting machines, Sam sees something strange against the luminosity of the sun's rays, and he crashes his lunar vehicle against the harvesting machine. He loses consciousness, and then he wakes up in the recovery room at the space station...but here's where the story takes a weird and disturbing twist: how did he get to the recovery room from the place of the accident? Why is he suddenly feeling so strange? And why does he get the sensation that he's NOT alone in this space station? That's all I can say without disclosing any spoilers. Suffice it to say that from the moment he awakes at the recovery room, the film takes a steep and disturbing dive into tension, and challenges Sam's sanity to an unspeakable degree. The suspense of the plot mixes with Sam's uncertainty and the terrible toll it's taking on his mind to deliver a veritable tour-de-force to the viewer. Duncan Jones (who, by the way, is David Bowie's son) makes an excellent directorial debut in this film which challenges conventional storytelling and feels as fresh and as intriguing as anything you've seen before.
The story is involving (I mean it), and it doesn't rely on your typical plot twists to gain its tension. It delivers the facts straight to the viewer, hiding nothing, but in the truth it conveys it forces upon our minds countless questions that we just can't wait to have answered. Rockwell is simply fantastic in his portrayal, and it is his performance, more than anything, which drives our attention. Spacey, with his coldly sweet voice, gives Gerty an ominous presence which we can't overlook, and we sympathize with the ship's computer and fear it at the same time. More than a sci-fi story, this is an exploration into the characters' mind, which poses questions dealing with the importance of human relations, human importance and the meaning of life.
The only conceivable downfall of the film is the fact that it deals with such deep and intriguing topics, but after a moment in the film, it ceases to probe deeper and focuses on the plot instead. This is good, don't get me wrong, but it could have been done better. Nevertheless, as Jones' directorial debut, I believe he has fared much, much better than other débutant directors.
The cinematography is very good, giving us wide-range shots which absorb the nothingness and the solitary expanse of the space station, forcing the feeling of loneliness and claustrophobia on the viewer; Clint Mansell's score is muted but effective, and this is good because it doesn't force itself on the viewer or the story, but it crawls beneath Sam's character, to a point where it becomes one with his personality. The editing is at a bit of a flaw, though; it tries to enhance the emotion by focusing too much on certain objects, but it fails at times (for example, there are way too many focuses of an animated smiley which appears on Gerty's screen, and this doesn't even come close to the tension we experienced by, say, the lingering shots of Hal 2000's red eye in "2001").
Still, the small flaws the film might carry don't overshadow the overall power and depth it conveys. It's truly satisfactory, and like I said before, it renews our faith in the existence of GOOD sci-fi films. I thoroughly recommend it! Rating: 3 stars out of 4!