Moon

MOON

Year : 2009
Director : Duncan Jones
Genre : Science Fiction / Drama
Rating : *** 1/2

'Moon' is the debut feature of Duncan Jones, formerly Zowie Bowie. It the simple story of a lone astronaut who is commissioned to overlook the mining of the surface of the moon. The mining allows for a new source of energy for Earth and the astronaut has to control all of the mining equipment and check that everything is running smoothly. His only companion is GERTY, a talking robot which has a LED screen of a smiley face that conveys it's emotions.

There are many things to say about 'Moon'. The most obvious is its homages to other brilliant science fiction movies, especially Kubricks '2001 : A Space Odyssey'. The character of GERTY, voiced brilliantly by Kevin Spacey,  is a direct reference to the more sinister HAL 9000. Jones has even admitted this, and it is quite clear when watching Moon that the spectre of '2001' is in the background. However, the main difference between HAL and GERTY, is whereas HAL just a clinical red camera lens, GERTY has a little screen of numerous smiley faces which conveys his emotions. This allows the viewer to fully understand what GERTY is thinking, rather than HAL which just has an emotionless 'eye'. This makes GERTY a protagonist, and allows you to sympathise with the robot. There is however, at the back of your mind, that GERTY could turn, just like HAL did.

The astronaut overlooking the mining operation is played by Sam Rockwell. He is in the final few days of completing his 3 year contract, and is almost cracking due to the intense isolation and lonliness he feels. His only method of communication with Earth, is through distorted, crackly video links. He has grown to talking to himself and having deep philosophical conversations with GERTY. The station in which he lives is a huge cavernous tunnel - like system (harkening back to '2001'), and his views from his windows are that of the barren grey wasteland that is the surface of the Moon. One day, when inspecting a broken down miner, he finds something in the mangled wreck of a moon car..... Here I have to stop writing about the plot or I will spoil the rest of the story.

'Moon' is a tough watch. For the first half an hour or so, not very much happens. It reminded me very much of the first time I watched '2001 : A Space Odyssey', where I nearly turned the film off due to boredom. However, I gave 'Moon' the benefit of the doubt, and before long, I was fixated by this story of loneliness, deprivation and self - realisation. In a time when the science fiction genre is full of Michael Bay nonsense of robots hitting each other, it's refreshing to see an intelligent sci - fi film in the same vein as 'Blade Runner', 'Silent Running', and '2001 : A Space Odyssey'.