It deserves to be seen although maybe not praised just yet

Rating: 8/10 (21 August 2009)

2009 has been a fairly awful year for cinema. Moon stands out in a year when six months prior nothing has excited an audience member who has a problem watching sexist, machismo driven blockbuster drivel. It is hardly an exceptional film. It does not homage so much as copy many of the great science fiction films of cinema. 2001, Silent Running and Alien are all clearly on screen. The threatening artificial intelligence of the onboard computer, the day-to-day environment threatened by corporate orders, the claustrophobic setting. Unlike Danny Boyle's Sunshine which seems eerie even before any of the peril sets in, Moon takes a long time to really go anywhere interesting.
That is neither the fault of Sam Rockwell or Duncan Jones' direction, which are both impressive and suggest greater things beckon for both, particularly Jones who seems unable to have an uninteresting image on screen. The script which spends a long time enforcing the monotony of Sam Bell's day-to-day activities and once its slow pace, that served Alien so well, is broken by incident it forces the audience to pay attention again and much is lost. It requires a second viewing not simply because a lot is lost in a first viewing but to simply help the audience understand what they missed when dozing.
That said it is a science fiction with ideas aplenty about identity and man's place in the world and given other science fiction films this year that are entirely about spectacle it is refreshing to see something with brains.
Clint Mansell's score however is utterly brilliant. Haunting and ethereal it is instantly a classic and makes the final scenes of Moon all the more memorable and moving. Whatever Duncan Jones does next will be certainly worth watching and will be more interesting than every other film of the summer, unless Christopher Nolan has a film out. This is the beginning of Duncan Jones' career and it cements Rockwell's reputation as a sterling actor who demands more zeroes to his pay cheques. But they have a long to go Moon is only the beginning. They still have a long way to go. Jones isn't Kubrick yet, nor is he Ridley Scott. But he can only go up...or so I hope.