There’s something quite comforting about Moonfall, a good, old-fashioned disaster movie that’s been crafted from ideas almost as daft as the moon is made of cheese. The director is Roland Emmerich, who brought us invading aliens in Independence Day and a more chilling view of climate disaster in The Day After Tomorrow. As the succinct title suggests, the moon’s orbit is off and it’s set for a collision course with Earth.
That in itself is a good enough premise for most Hollywood disaster movies, especially when you’ve got Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring) as the leather jacket-wearing ex-astronaut jetting off into space to save the day. Joining him is Halle Berry. Together they feel a bit like a cut-price George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, who fronted Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar-winning space disaster masterpiece Gravity. Berry even has the immortal line: “We are not prepared for this.”
Yes, Moonfall is pure cornball entertainment. It starts with Wilson’s Brian Harper and Berry’s Jo Fowler on a routine space mission. But a strange cloudlike storm swoops into their path, causing the death of their fellow astronaut. What was it? It appeared to burst from the moon’s surface like an oil geyser. But with Fowler unconscious during the incident, no one believes Harper. A decade on, he’s out of Nasa, divorced from his wife and his son Sonny (Charlie Plummer) is heading for jail after an altercation with the police.
Naturally, a freak disaster like the moon plummeting towards us will offer Harper a shot at redemption — with both the disbelieving suits at Nasa and his family. Cue earnest hugs all round. Soon enough, he’s jetting back up into space with Berry by his side — the old team back together — before the US military can pepper the moon with nuclear missiles. Down below, Sonny and other family members are left in a constant state of peril, as shotgun-wielding looters try to block their path to safety.
There’s lots more about Moonfall that should remain spoiler-free — with a script that appears culled from lunatic lunar conspiracy theories involving “the biggest cover-up in human history”. You even get Donald Sutherland popping up for one scene as a shadowy figure in a wheelchair who has all the Nasa secrets. (After his turn as the conspiracy-laden turn as Mr. X in JFK, Sutherland seems forever saddled with the whistle-blower role).
While you’re digesting all this, Emmerich doesn’t skimp on the disaster shots. As the moon’s orbit changes, the tides are drastically altered and epic floods wipe through coastal cities — with huge mega-yachts being tossed around the ocean like toy boats in a bath. The visual effects aren’t quite out of the top drawer, but you’re swept along all the same.
Accompanying this out-of-this-world catastrophe are some amusing lines — not least a news reporter claiming that since the disaster “looting has become a favourite pastime in the UK.” John Bradley is also warm and funny as KC, the nerdy burger joint employee — and amateur astronomer — who first discovers that the moon is off its normal trajectory. Bradley, who Game of Thrones fans will know as Samwell Tarly, is definitely the film’s highlight, bringing some much-needed levity to the archetypal “scientist” role.
Emmerich, who took great delight in destroying the White House in Independence Day, has his fun here — New York’s Chrysler Building takes a battering, in a wink from the director to those fans expecting some major landmarks to get obliterated. It’s unashamedly silly, but maybe that’s what we need right now. A disaster movie that doesn’t intrude on our reality, this is pure nonsense escapism coming from the dark side of the moon.
Moonfall is out in UAE cinemas now
