Moonfall

I don’t know where Roland Emmerich finds the enthusiasm to keep making the same film but here we are. As usual, the worlds about to end because of some pseudo-science threat, this time it’s the moon, and there’s lots of people in government buildings, looking at banks of screens, trying to work out how to stop it. Nothing makes sense at any point, none of the bits that are supposed to be funny work, and the dialogue is awful, but I found it hilarious. I don’t know if it quite gets to “so bad it’s good” territory but it challenges the binary for sure. 

The first half an hour or so is just bizarre. There’s a really cool scene where you meet three characters aboard an Endeavour Space Shuttle, and you get some nice scenery. Weirdly, later on one of these characters turns up at a museum on a motorbike, and that scene was far less visually convincing. But anyway, something catastrophic happens in space and the reaction is closer to parent watching a toddler vomit in the back of a car. Then we skip forward a few years to listen to some exposition from a seven year old who watches the news on his laptop, then we skip forward again for very little reason. It’s basically just a series of time skips until the world is about to end, which I suppose is an alright summary for Emmerich’s career as a whole. 

The reason for the world-ending threat in this one is so bonkers that I wasn’t sure if it was fictional or not. In the same way the film challenges the binary between good and bad, it really makes you question the binary of a possible theory and a ridiculously stupid plot point. My rating of two stars feels generous to be honest, but that’s purely based on how funny it doesn’t realise it is.