Just by looking at the promotional picture above, one can see how Moon takes after 2001: A Space Odyssey. In this day and age it's almost impossible to make a 'thinking' sci-fi movie that doesn't pay some sort of homage to 2001. 'Moon' acknowledges this early on and by doing so it's able to move past it and become it's own movie. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Moon is a small indie movie (it still had a five million dollar budget, but small compared to major studio films) directed and co-written by Duncan Jones. You might know Duncan Jones by his other name, Zowie Bowie in that he is David Bowie's (real name, Robert David Jones) son. The film stars Sam Rockwell as a miner on the far side of the room that is charged with keeping an almost completely automated operation going. The only real interaction he has is with a helper robot voiced by Kevin spacey. Rockwell's character is on a 3 year tour of duty and is 2 weeks away from being able to go back to Earth when he starts hallucinating and acting twitchy.
As mentioned above, Moon acknowledges it's sci-fi roots. Much of the white paneled rooms and Rockwell's space suit look like they come directly from 2001. When the movie starts, and you are introduced to the talking robot that constantly calls Rockwell's character by his first name (Sam), you get the feeling that this might just be another evil/unfeeling robot movie with a creepy monotone voice. However we quickly learn that Spacey's robot (named GERTY) is just there to help Rockwell and most comparisons with 2001 fall by the wayside. In addition, this movie has a gritty and dirty feel to it and has a sort of 'lived in' quality. His space suit may have the style of '2001' but it's covered in soot. His living quarters are also dirty and cluttered, and not all of the equipment works properly. All of this is done to give us a feel that Sam is just a blue collar worker, and that space is not as romantic as we always tend to make it.
It's impossible to discuss this movie any further without giving away some major spoilers. So if you plan on seeing this movie I suggest you stop reading right now and come back after you've seen it. The trailers give away the big plot twist but I figure most people haven't seen them and have no idea what's coming.
After the initial setting of tone and place, the plot gets going and there is an accident with one of the mining machines and Sam goes out on the Moon's surface to investigate. Again he hallucinates seeing a young girl and when distracted crashes his lunar truck into the harvester. After the crash, he has the wherewithal to put on his space helmet before he passes out from a head injury. In the next scene we awake with him in the infirmary seemingly with no injuries besides memory loss and general fatigue. After recovering, he realizes that one of the harvesters is stuck and convinces GERTY to let him go outside even though the robot has strict orders to not let him outside, and to wait for a recovery team to fix the problem. As Sam approaches the truck he peers inside and realizes there is a body inside.
From this point it's pretty obvious where the plot is going to go. The body inside the truck is another Sam, and it becomes pretty clear that clones of the original Sam are stored and awakened within the station. It's a clear problem that the two Sam's meet each other, and they have about 15 hours before the extraction team comes to 'fix' the problem with the harvesting machine. They slowly learn about their situation and eventual fate by asking GERTY questions and by investigating the station.
The plot after the initial set up isn't the most original, but the movie never becomes dull. Although many of the general details are pretty obvious, we learn the specifics slowly as the two Sams come to grips with each other and try to figure out what the hell is going on. Their interactions with GERTY are pretty spectacular and the audience really connects with the robot without anthropomorphizing him. However this movie, and your reaction to it, almost completely relies on Rockwell's performance. I thought he did a pretty great job, and thought he kept it going with the interactions between the older, sicker, stately Sam and the 'newer', brash one. However I could see how this movie might not work if one's not a fan of one man shows or of Sam Rockwell.
Moon is definitely worth seeing. It may not be the most intelligent movie, but it's interesting and occasionally thought provoking, and I thought the last 10 minutes were pretty thrilling. I appreciate that Duncan Jones was willing to do a sci-fi movie that was different that the common fare, and although it may not be one of my favorite sci-fi movies it's the sort of movie that should be getting made and seen, rather than just more shitty Transformers type movies. I appreciate any effort that is made to bring sci-fi back to its high concept roots and away from the more vapid interpretation of the genre.
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