Movie Review: Moon

Note: Very minor spoilers (just set up the beginning of the film).

Last night I ended up seeing Moon, a sci-fi movie from 2009. The basic premise is that in the future, the majority of the world's energy supply comes from mining on the moon. There's a base on the moon and four automated harvesters that take care of the work. On the base, there is one human and a robot. The human is up for a three-year contract keeping things running, and then they head home.

It's two weeks before the guy up there now, Sam, is supposed to go home. He's looking forward to seeing his wife and his daughter who was born just before he started his contract.

Obviously, it's lonely up there. Live conversation is impossible, so all Sam has to keep himself occupied is his work, the robot, recorded messages, and a miniature town he's carving out of wood. It's lonely. Very lonely. And he's reaching the end of his line, starting to hallucinate and lose touch.

He heads out to one of the harvesters to pick up the newest cache of the mineral to send back to Earth when his roaver has a bad accident, the results of which start leading him into paranoia and investigation.



Overall, a fantastic sci-fi film. I enjoyed the mystery from beginning to end. Some of the parts I was able to call before they were revealed, and others came at me from left field. It reminds me that the best sci-fi movies tended to be less housed in special effects and more about the story. This film was clearly low-budget, but that did not hinder anything - the story was enough to carry this movie ahead of a lot of other action-packed films I've seen in the past.

Sam Rockwell did a fantastic job carrying this movie given that he was the only actor on screen for the vast majority of it. He was able to portray the loneliness very well, and the feeling of isolation made for a heavy evening. If you at all enjoy good sci fi, I recommend giving Moon a watch.