Moonfall

A mix of Independence Day and 2012, but it can’t hold a candle to either. Sure, this is primarily light entertainment, or classic Emmerich, if you will, though even lighter than usual because it’s worse than even Godzilla in character work, dialogue and level of stupidity, and that's saying a hell of a lot. Surprisingly, even the visual effects flourishes don't dazzle to any extreme, and the once so inventive wizard has fallen into the average green screen, where he greases up one unimaginative make-up scene after another. What would Elon do? I'm sure he wouldn't have made this occasionally funny travesty. (15/05/2022)

Thanks Roland! This is the kind of honest bollocks, obviously exaggerated (as it’s based on crazy conspiracies and genre aesthetics of the 50s, and even the 90s) and going full throttle from the start, that has been missing in cinemas for a long time. I don't really understand the complaints about the haphazard logic and the final existential interlude – it's a science fiction movie, not a NASA instructional film. And it's a bloody fun sci-fi, where the deadlines work brilliantly and the deliberately overblown and implausible big-screen plot simply draws you in. Some of the dialogue is admittedly cheesy, and the smoothness of the smoothly narrated Independence Day and 2012 makes up for the overly fast pace in places, but whatever. I was smiling like a little boy and it never ceased to surprise me. Emmerich still does this like nobody else in the business. 75 % (06/02/2022)

In Moonfall, there is not even a trace of anything that made last year’s The Tomorrow War, a B-movie in the same genre, so great (inventive work with clichés, sincere emotions, nice visual stylization). Emmerich disappeared into a black hole. This can’t be his movie. Or maybe he's just realizing that he has nothing left to say after 2012. An Asylum screenplay with an A-list cast. I still can’t believe that I saw Patrick Wilson and Halle Berry reciting that dialogue. (03/02/2022)

The moon has deviated from its orbit and will collide with the Earth in a few weeks. Only two former astronauts and one annoying conspiracy theorist can save the world, but they have no idea what awaits them in space. Roland Emmerich rips himself off and makes another disaster movie, but one that is a shadow of Independence Day or 2012. It's just not very entertaining this time around, which makes how stupid it all is stand out that much more. (03/02/2022)

Yesterday I was in Apollo 10 1/2, today it’s the regular Apollo 11... Emmerich destroys a planet again in a similar way, but this time he does it a bit differently. Perhaps everything is a bit more laid back here and the destruction isn’t as opulent as in his previous disaster hits like 2012 or the climatic The Day After Tomorrow. This time round, the destruction somehow takes a back seat. The main things here are the journey to the center of the Moon and the mystery of the Dyson Sphere, entertaining mucking about involving a cloud and a decrepit space shuttle, family values and great lines. It’s a hair’s breadth worse than the other Emmerich movies to date, but it’s still good entertainment for two hours, during which your brain can get some rest. (03/04/2022)