Film Review: MOONFALL (2022): Roland Emmerich’s Big Budget Extravaganza is Wild Fun but It’s No INDEPENDENCE DAY

Moonfall Review

Moonfall (2022) Film Review, a movie directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley, Charlie Plummer, Michael Pena, Carolina Bartczak, Ava Weiss, Chris Sandiford, Jonathan Maxwell Silver, Eme Ikwuakor, Stephen Bogaert, Maxim Roy, Donald Sutherland, Kathleen Fee and Frank Schorpion.

Moonfall, directed by Roland Emmerich (Independence Day), had a sensationally high budget that was in the vicinity of $140 million. Whether or not every penny is evident on screen by what occurs in the finished film may be debatable, but the science fiction disaster picture is another guilty pleasure for 2022 that audiences will hate to admit they enjoyed watching.

This new picture stars Oscar winner Halle Berry and Patrick Wilson as the lead characters, astronauts Jocinda Fowler and Brian Harper. As the film opens, a strangely evil black swarm kills their colleague in outer space and Harper is given a bad rap as a result which leads to him having to sell his family’s home when we meet him again later on. His reputation has been tarnished. Meanwhile, Fowler has become the Deputy Director of NASA. As the film’s main premise kicks into gear, we meet K.C. Houseman (hilariously played by John Bradley), a professional drive-thru attendant at a fast-food joint who is also a conspiracy theorist. He’s a bit smarter than your average bear, so to say, and discovers a piece of scientific information that could change the world as we know it. You see, the moon has been pushed from its orbit around Earth and all hell is about to break loose in true Roland Emmerich disaster movie style.

It takes a lot for the supporting characters in this film to believe what Houseman is suggesting but eventually he is proven to be correct. In the interim, Harper’s son Sonny (Charlie Plummer) gets arrested for driving recklessly and Harper can’t get Sonny out on bail even with the help of Sonny’s lawyer stepdad, Tom (Michael Pena). Also in the cast is Eme Ikwuakor as Doug Davidson, who is the head honcho of the Air Force and Fowler’s ex-husband. Somewhere in the middle of the film, Donald Sutherland pops up as Holdenfield, formerly of NASA, who knows a thing or two about what happened during Apollo 11 and provides some interesting plot development.

Emmerich’s Moonfall is really just an excuse for big-budget action sequences and many of them are entertaining to watch whether they occur on Earth or in space. This film also has some emotional themes thrown in for good measure as Harper and Fowler must fight to maintain their life on Earth for their respective families–Fowler has a son of her own with Davidson. A memorable family-centered scene comes when Tom must sacrifice his air supply for his daughter in order to save her life. The best scenes in the movie center around Houseman (who can remind one of Ricky Gervais) and the ones in space towards the end are the most crowd-pleasing ones. That’s because Houseman becomes the film’s true hero for reasons I certainly won’t reveal here.

Each action sequence in Emmerich’s new film is carefully constructed and particularly noteworthy is the not so showy scene where Harper is found by his colleagues who, after going through a maze-like structure when the door shuts, discover Harper who is being manipulated by the evil swarm. How will they stop this swarm from taking over the world? That’s a question you can answer by buying a ticket to this entertaining film.

OK. Now for the film’s problems. Halle Berry is certainly not working up to her abilities here and both her and Wilson are occasionally undermined by cliched dialogue such as when they say that they can “kill two birds with one stone” if they follow suit on an idea. Wilson fares worse than Berry does and never emerges as a truly relatable character except when he is talking with his son which makes for some touching moments. Bradley steals the show through the whole entire movie and comes up as a remarkably gifted comic actor who is strangely believable in some of the dramatic scenes as well. Donald Sutherland is hugely wasted and has one scene here, basically. Plummer is a bright up-and-coming talent as Sonny and plays his role as a troubled young man as realistically as you could expect to find in a film like this. Frank Schorpion is also a standout in the supporting cast as General Jenkins who wants to take extreme measures in the situation at hand. Schorpion plays his part to perfection as we watch Ikwuakor’s Davidson trying to outwit him in order to save the day.

The visual effects of Moonfall are, at times, simultaneously visually arresting and cheesy. The swarm, in particular, is an interesting evil entity but a few of the sequences on Earth look like they are scenes in a movie that cost a lot less than this one. Nevertheless. while Emmerich has not topped his other disaster films with his new one, he still creates a good time for audiences who enjoy disaster pictures. The astronaut costumes look spiffy and are well designed while the movie has plenty of edge-of-your-seat moments throughout. It’s one of this season’s more guilty pleasures but there is not much in the way of suspense as to how it will end. Besides its predictability and occasionally shallow characters, there is enough going on in the film to make Emmerich fans reasonably satisfied. This one is slightly recommended being that it’s a roller coaster ride that takes you to space and back. And, John Bradley emerges as a true star-in-the-making.

Rating: 6.5/10

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