Patrick Wilson
(Picture: Reiner Bajo)Film titles can be so evocative and the words “moon” and “fall”, when used properly, blaze like fireworks (Moonraker. Skyfall. Case closed). Put them together, however, and the result is bathetic (think “mournful”, as pronounced by a drunk). Luckily, Moonfall itself is no damp squib. It may be a hymn to hogwash, but this sci fi disaster romp from Roland Emmerich – about an attempt to save the Earth and the moon by blowing up a gyrating AI worm – knows exactly what it’s doing and has a secret weapon in marvellous Mancunian John Bradley.
The latter isn’t technically a newbie. He’s been known as Sam Tarly, aka Ser Piggy in Game of Thrones. Still, this definitely counts as a breakthrough performance and given all the galactic chicanery, surely I can get away with saying a star is born?
33 year-old Bradley plays KC Houseman, a smart and extremely enthusiastic conspiracy theorist who, for reasons that are too convoluted to explain, speaks with a Northern accent. KC feels like a blend of Spider-Man’s Ned, Stranger Things’ Murray and every part Nick Frost has ever played. What makes KC stand out from these sublime wing-men is that he ends up centre-stage. Emmerich and co find ingenious ways to put him (and his cat, Fuzz Aldrin), at the heart of the story.
So our hero is a “mega-structurist” (he’s convinced the moon is hollow) and he’s also the first person in America to realise the moon is falling towards Earth. With a bit of help from Fuzz, he contacts disgraced astronaut Brian (Patrick Wilson; who looks like Chris Pratt, if Pratt had been raised on a diet of leaves and existential angst).
KC and Brian become part of a space mission led by Nasa big-wig, ex-astronaut and loving mum Jo (Oscar-winner, Halle Berry), an attempt to stop the evil entity penetrating the moon like a crazed maggot. Can KC, Brian and Jo bait and trap the enemy before Jo’s top-brass ex-husband (Eme Ikwuakor) uses nukes to solve the problem? And will Brian and Jo’s various loved ones – including Brian’s son (Charlie Plummer) and a resourceful Chinese exchange student (Kelly Yu) – triumph over tsunamis, white trash marauders and a gun-toting “Karen”?
The script is nothing if not mischievously topical and is brilliant at staking out neutral ground. Conspiracy theorists, in the age of Covid, are the most divisive of figures but, in case you were wondering, the swagger-free KC is not the kind of guy you can imagine being invited onto Joe Rogan’s Spotify podcast.
Not that the key audience for Moonfall will care; their focus will be on the SFX. Emmerich – the man behind Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow – certainly knows his stuff. Some of the CGI shots of “big ass” gravity waves (and the stuff concerning the innards of the moon) combine pin sharp detail with a feel for scale that’s ridiculously satisfying.
Big-budget sci-fi, right now, is exerting a strong gravitational pull on the masses. Moonfall is less elegant than Dune and takes fewer risks than Don’t Look Up. Still, it’s a force to be reckoned with.
