Moonfall Review: A Very Average Outing from Emmerich!

The first film in the Moonfall Trilogy, Moonfall, features a cameo from Donald Sutherland, it was directed by Roland Emmerich and stars Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, and John Bradley in the lead roles. The world stands on the brink of annihilation when a mysterious force knocks the moon from its orbit and sends it hurtling toward a collision course with Earth. With only weeks before impact, NASA exec Jocinda “Jo” Fowler teams up with a man from her past and a conspiracy theorist for an impossible mission into space to save humanity.

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While I’m not the biggest fan of Roland Emmerich’s filmography, he directed The Patriot in 2000, and that’s my favorite film; it was also the very first movie I ever reviewed. So I always give him the benefit of the doubt. He certainly does a good job of directing his newest flick.

The acting from the cast was decent, although no one will be winning any awards or anything. The CGI and the special effects are jaw-dropping, although a few shots could’ve been polished up a bit. The action scenes are kinetic, and there is probably the coolest car chase I’ve ever seen during the third act; I wish it would’ve lasted a little longer.

The script is a little clunky and some of the dialogue is a little cheesy; it’s about what you would expect to get the “okay” from the director of Independence Day. The picture has a lot of compelling plot points and the concepts proposed throughout are super cool.

It’s during the climax where this whole thing reaches TOO unbelievable – even for a flick where the moon is crashing into Earth. The reveals during the third act surrounding the moon and its descent towards our planet is just too much, and maybe others will disagree, but I just couldn’t buy it; the film didn’t set us up to buy that sort of information to just dump it on us in the last twenty minutes and the character’s accept it without hesitation.

And the ending: Roland Emmerich says he has a trilogy planned, but really, this is not that kind of feature that needs a sequel, nor would that make much sense given the premise. All in all, Moonfall, is an average film.

‘Moonfall’ Rating – 3/5

Review by Carder Galluzzo (@the_screen_scholar)

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