Moonfall

Rated: MMoonfall

Directed by: Roland Emmerich

Screenplay Written by: Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser, Spenser Cohen

Produced by: Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser

Starring: Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, Donald Sutherland, Michael Peña.

‘We’re not prepared for this.’

Part disaster movie, part sci-fi, comedy and drama, Moonfall begins its journey in space.  Where an anomaly throws a routine repair mission into a tragedy.

Jocinda (Halle Berry), AKA space wife loses her memory.  And space hero Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) loses everything.

After the tragedy is chalked up to human error, back on earth, Harper is now a fallen hero.

Fast forward ten years and something’s not right.

The moon is out of orbit and the first one to realise is megastructure conspiracist, K. C. Houseman (John Bradley).

But no one will listen.

‘Make them listen,’ says his mum.

So he does.

Being a Roland Emmerich film (think, Independence Day (1996), The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and 2012 (2012)), I expected a big budget disaster movie, and as already introduced, Moonfall is part disaster, part everything else.

Some notes hit, like the chuckles evoked from conspiracist, I-lost-two-mops, Houseman (you’ll recognise John Bradley as Sam in, Game of Thrones).  And some notes didn’t with the suspense lost in the drama of Jocinda and her ex, military man, Doug Davidson (Eme Ikwuakor) and bad-boy son, Sonny (Charlie Plummer).  And what I think was supposed to be an exchange student (?) Michelle (Kelly Yu).

I got a little lost down some rabbit holes.

But there’s a good foundation with a strong performance from Patrick Wilson and the movie’s saving grace, John Bradley.

And the effects on the big screen managed to distract from the sometimes forced, ‘I work for the American people and you’re keeping them in the dark,’ sentiment that made up about an eighth of the movie.

What was lacking in the emotional subtleties was glossed over with exploding cosmic rocks like fireworks and a looming, disintegrating moon pulling the ocean up and over high rise buildings.

Entertaining on the big screen and one of the better disaster movies with some attempt to dive into some interesting concepts.

What I enjoyed the most was the comedy.

So, a bit of an all-rounder.

I didn’t love it; didn’t hate it.

I had a giggle, liked the effects, made me wonder while some of the drama made me cringe.

Ad Astra

Rated: MAd Astra

Directed by: James Gray

Written by: James Gray & Ethan Gross

Produced by: Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, p.g.a., Jeremy Kleiner, p.g.a., James Gray, p.g.a., Anthony Katagas, p.g.a., Rodrigo Teixeira, p.g.a., Arnon Milchan

Starring: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler, and Donald Sutherland.

‘I will not be vulnerable,’ says Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) in a monologue that threads the story of the film together; it’s a voice that measures the thought processing behind those blue eyes with green specks.  A thought-process hidden, because the person Roy shows to others is a performance, ‘my eye always on the exit.’

Set in the near future, Ad Astra is a mystery set in space, the story based in commercialised space travel to the moon, to rockets that blast toward the human inhabitants of Mars, to go further, for Roy to reach Neptune in search of his father who began the Lima Project thirty years before; his father’s purpose: to find evidence of extra-terrestrial life.

Instead of science fiction and the practicalities of space travel or even the exploration of physics to understand human existence, Ad Astra, at its heart, is a drama.

There was plenty of opportunity to get technical, but the film skips over the science behind the impending disaster from outer space so the story jumps while the movement in space is slow and calculated.

So although there’s a disturbing beauty to the tense moments of guns fired from space rovers and visually stunning scenes of a reflection of darkness across the orange visor of a helmet that looks like a faceless being, I felt like the story was missing the factual backbone to hold up the idea of the mysterious father figure who has dedicated his life to science and space exploration.

Ad Astra is not a journey into space but for Roy to find his way back to humanity.

The story circles around to give some satisfaction, to be able to, Let go.

And there’s so much going for the film with the build of tension with the low vibrating soundtrack of a siren; with those crime thriller moments set in space with the slow danger of being in an environment with toxic air, without gravity – in a place no other living Being has ever been found.

But for me, those amazing moments of suspense combined with the beauty of space on the big screen would have been so much more astounding if the story dug just a bit deeper into the physics of the environment – that would have made the film more believable while adding that extra layer to the drama of the story.

Still, an interesting change in pace that adds a mysterious twist to the thriller genre.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

The Hunger Games MockingJay Part 2GoMovieReviews Rating:★★★☆ (3.9/5)

Director: Francis Lawrence

Screenplay: Peter Craig, Danny Strong

Based on ‘Mockingjay’ by Suzanne Collins

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrleson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Donald Sutherland, Julianne Moore.

I had to play catch up with this one, having missed the last two releases.

Catching Fire was a pleasant surprise. I love the characters going back into The Games. And what a pleasure to see Philip Seymour Hoffman on the screen again (sob, sob). What an amazing actor (Capote (2005), Doubt (2008), The Ides of March (2011), A Most Wanted Man (2014), to name a few). It was a nice touch to dedicate the Mockingjay Part 1 to him in the credits. The reworking of the script to include a letter written by Hoffman’s character, Heavensbee, for the final instalment was well done by director, Francis Lawrence (director of the final three instalments). The letter read by Woody Harrelson’s character, Haymmitch Abernathy. See article in The Los Angeles Times here…

There was potential for Mockingjay to become saccharine, with the propaganda, and emotive speeches that became the focus of Part 1. Thankfully, the character Johanna Mason (Jena Malone, well cast, I say), had the hard authentic nasty to bring the film back from too much cheese.

Mockingjay 2 takes us to the final battle against the Capitol and tyranny of President Snow.

Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), has become the symbol of the rebellion and under the direction of Coin (Julianne Moore), the leader of District 13, the Districts are aligning behind the symbol of the Mockingjay.

Facing battles from all sides, including her once trusted ally, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), Katniss must stay strong to overthrow Snow. But Snow won’t go quietly, and hence the battle for the Capitol becomes the final Hunger Games.

I haven’t read the books so the story with its twists and turns was a welcome surprise for me. The characters were becoming a little flat, the story a bit too: bad guys versus good guys in Part 1; Part 2 has enough twists to keep the story interesting.

The inclusion of Katniss singing The Hanging Tree in Part 1 as the rebels’ anthem was genius. Jennifer Lawrence has a lovely, simple warm voice that was a nice finishing touch in Part 2.

I liked this film. It was a well thought-out conclusion to the saga, and I left with a satisfied, warm feeling.

 

Subscribe to GoMovieReviews
Enter your email address for notification of new reviews - it's free!

 

Subscribe!