If you are a fan of Director/Writer Roland Emmerich than you know his love for amazing special effects (CGI) in his films that will blow your mind. His newest film Moonfall is worth seeing for amazing visuals and stunning action sequences. That said, you have to like his wild eyed storytelling even more, to get the full entertainment value of his films. Especially since Moonfall seems to wander a bit, the dialogue’s not very convincing in some scenes and even his timelines get difficult to follow. If you do decide to take a trip on his wild side with Moonfall, just sit back and go with it and you’ll have a great time.
Astronauts Jocinda Fowl (Halle Berry) and Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) have not been working together since their death defying return to earth from a space mission many years ago. During that mission the space craft was attacked by a strange anomaly and killed one of the crew. Since then Brian has been trying to convince his superiors that the attack did happen and that it could probably cause future trouble for Earth.
In the meantime KC Houseman (John Bradley), a janitor and NASA wannabe, turns out to be a brilliant prognosticator of all things outer space. Claiming he has discovered that the moon has been changing its orbit around Earth, the government won’t return any of his communications. Roland Emmerich then puts his film into hyper drive showing the Earth getting disaster effects of the Moon’s weird movement. He brings his main cast together and they start their adventure to save the world.
The acting is quite good even with the off and on dumbed down dialogue. But, it’s the performances by Halle Barry and Patrick Wilson that are the main attraction, and they work hard to make the film work. With help from John Bradley as Houseman, the team holds it all together leading to the surreal ending.
If you go to see Moonfall, it would best be watched in the IMAX format or even in a Dolby Atmos auditorium. You really need the powers of theses mediums that have energized sound and up in your face special effects CGI to get the most out of Emmerich’s film.
Moonfall has been rated PG-13 by the MPAA for violence, disaster action, strong language, and some drug use. For all the fans and followers of High Energy Sci-Fi Adventure my rating is 4 out of 5 Stars.
Additional Film Information:
Cast: Halle Berry. Patrick Wilson, John Bradley, Michael Peña, Charlie Plummer, Kelly Yu, Eme Ikwuakor, Carolina Bartczak, and Donald Sutherland.
Directed and written by: Roland Emmerich
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence, disaster action, strong language, and some drug use
Running Time: 2 hrs.
Opening Date: February 4, 2022
Distributed by: Lionsgate
Released in: Theaters, IMAX, Dolby Theater
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
