Movie Review: Moonfall (2022)

Synopsis: Ten years after he is disgraced following a fatal space shuttle mission because his superiors refused to believe the shuttle was attacked by something alien, former astronaut Brian Harper is asked to save the planet when the moon shifts orbit and an entity like he described attacks another crew. Oh, and the moon isn't really a moon, it is a mega structure built by an alien race.

Who's in it? The movie stars Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry, John Bradley, Charlie Plummer and Kelly Yu.

Review: I saw trailers for this movie when it first came out but, while I had some interest in seeing it, wasn't going to pay to watch it at the theater and the library never seemed to have a copy of it available. My wife and I finally had an opportunity to watch it today and I have to say I guess I really didn't miss much. 

At first, the premise seemed intriguing. The idea of the moon suddenly shifting out of orbit and the catastrophic effect something like that would have could have made a great disaster movie. It also would have presented a hopeless scenario that would have been fun to watch the main characters overcome (or not overcome).

When it was revealed the moon was actually a mega structure (take a drink every time someone says that in this film), I grew skeptical but remained somewhat intrigued. However, it kind of went downhill from there.

The part about ancient humans creating Earth and populating the planet with their DNA was probably one of the worst parts of it. It was basically a science-fiction version of creationism, which I could have probably lived with had the film addressed the gazillion or so questions that always surround creationism (such as where dinosaurs came from). And that part about artificial intelligence chasing down all organic life frankly just seemed silly. 

On top of it, there really wasn't much that separated this movie from any other disaster/science fiction movie. This is especially true of some of the secondary characters, which seemed ripped off from films like Independence Day and 2012. It almost felt like maybe the writers had planned on just trying to combine movies like that and hoped nobody noticed but then decided to throw in a completely different main plot that left a lot of loose ends as far as an explanation goes.

Final Opinion: This could have been a decent disaster movie had the filmmakers kept the plot simple. Instead, they got a bit too creative and made the film more goofy than good.

My Grade: D