Moonfall might’ve made for an entertaining disaster film but the film feels dated feeling and looking like a relic of the 1990s and a cast that includes Halle Berry who clearly looks disinterested. I suppose if you’re interested this might be worth a rental.
Moonfall
(2022)
Genre(s): Science Fiction, Action, Disaster
Lionsgate| PG13 – 130 min. – $39.99 | April 26, 2022
Date Published: 05/03/2022 | Author: The Movieman
|
|
|||||||||||
Lionsgate provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 2¼/5 |
|
Plot Synopsis: A mysterious force knocks the moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know it. With mere weeks before impact and the world on the brink of annihilation Jo Fowler (HALLE BERRY) is convinced she has the key to saving us all – but only one astronaut from her past, Brian Harper (PATRICK WILSON), and a conspiracy theorist, KC Houseman (JOHN BRADLEY), believe her. The unlikely heroes will mount an impossible last-ditch mission into space, only to find out that our moon is not what we think it is. Quick Hit Review: I generally like disaster movies, even the cheesier kinds, though I tend to enjoy the old school ones like The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure and even the flawed Earthquake. Then you get the ones that were born out of the 1990s like Independence Day which still holds up today even with the stilted dialogue (president’s speech not withstanding) with some top-notch visual and practical effects. The offerings in the genre since haven’t exactly been terribly tremendous (see 2012 and Geostorm), however, and the latest is Moonfall from the disaster maestro himself, Roland Emmerich. Moonfall is a movie that looks and feels like something that would’ve come out of the late 90s or early aughts. The film features a decent enough cast like Halle Berry, who clearly was in it purely for the paycheck and Patrick Wilson who seemed to put in some effort at least along with I’d imagine a respectable paycheck in his own right. The effects meanwhile though was okay and while more than a step up from the crap SyFy outputs, still looks dated, the water effects in particular was rather poor. In terms of the story, it’s complete non-sense of course, as most of these disaster movies, old and new, tend to be and I can say it is so bats**t insane that in a certain mindset, perhaps some might get some entertainment out of it. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3/5 |
|
This release comes with a glossy slip cover. Inside is a redemption code for the Digital HD copy. Audio Commentary by Writer/Producer/Director Roland Emmerich and Writer/Producer/Composer Harald Kloser Against Impossible Odds: Making Moonfall (58:40) goes behind-the-scenes and is split into three parts. Includes on-set and promotional interviews with members of the cast and crew. Unusually lengthy for a new movie and welcoming even though I wasn’t especially wild about the film itself. Exploring the Moon: Past, Present and Future (26:29) – This is a featurette looking at the history behind the moon. Dr. KC Houseman Speaks the Truth (7:49) are four mock featurettes with John Bradley in character. |
VIDEO – 4½/5 |
| Lionsgate releases Moonfall onto Blu-ray where it’s presented with a 2.39 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer. For the most part the picture looks very good, detail is sharp especially for the close-up shots with the more distant ones, particularly the ones where buildings are being destroyed, showing some of the more average visual effects. Colors are mostly vibrant though a fair portion of the film takes place at night, perhaps to cover some of the effects shortcomings (like they did with Godzilla back in ’98). |
AUDIO – 5/5 |
| If there’s one thing you can count on with these disaster movies, especially modern ones, is the explosive soundtrack. The movie comes with a Dolby Atmos track which showcases the action-centric scenes from beginning to end, with the LFE channel kicking on provide some rumble to the room. Meanwhile, dialogue comes across with great clarity without sounding overly boisterous and ambient noises such as the side action or white noise makes use of the rear channels |
OVERALL – 2½/5 |
|
Moonfall might’ve made for an entertaining disaster film but the film feels dated feeling and looking like a relic of the 1990s and a cast that includes Halle Berry who clearly looks disinterested and probably in it for a quick payday, not that I blame her. I suppose if you’re interested this might be worth a rental though like 2012 and Geostorm before, it’s nothing you’ll want to revisit even if you do appreciate the disaster and cheese-factor elements. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.