Roland Emmerich's new blockbuster, Moonfall, is in theaters starting today (February XNUMX), but critics only got a chance to see the film last night, perhaps because the producers knew what to expect. it was about to happen.
The disaster movie stars Find Berry, Aquaman point man Patrick Wilson, John Bradley, who you may know best from his role as Samwell Tarly on Game Of Thrones, Michael Peña and Donald Sutherland.
The blockbuster, which despite being funded independently of major studios, cost more than €XNUMX million, begins with the discovery that an enigmatic force has knocked the moon out of its orbit around the Earth and has been on a collision course with our planet.
Berry plays Jo Fowler, a NASA executive and ex-astronaut who realizes what's going on and fights desperately for people to take her for real. Unfortunately, only an astronaut from her past, Wilson's Brian Harper and a conspiracy theorist named KC Houseman, believe her.
This unlikely trio then embarks on a supposedly impossible last-minute space mission to try and save humanity from annihilation.
The first critical reactions arrived, they were scathing.
Jake Wilson of the Sydney Morning Herald was unimpressed with the film's tone and found it really hard to take it for real, writing: "...sheer stupidity would make it impossible to take the threat of global destruction for real, even for a minute." moment. Earthquakes crash and skyscrapers crumble, but it all feels like watching a screen saver. »
Blu-Ray's Brian Orndorf likewise kicked the film, calling it "...a moronic story of planetary survival with a miserable script that gets worse the more it leans into its absurd ideas."
Jennifer Heaton of Alternative Lens was no more affable, criticizing every facet of the film, from its "bloated runtime" to a design "...awash in dull, pale colors and stock design choices." Anything that doesn't look halfhearted is a visual idea stolen from another movie.
My #MOONFALL review is out now on #AlternativeLens! Short version: probably Emmerich's worst movie. It starts out stupid and gets more and more absurd, but it's not engaging or entertaining enough to make up for it. When he's not dumb, he's just plain jaded. Jump! https://t.co/VRqmZWvLrE pic.twitter.com/vfltJNxSHEFFebruary 3, 2022
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Uproxx's chief entertainment writer, Mike Ryan, trashed the film's dialogue, especially this exchange...
Patrick Wilson: “Listen, I have my drawbacks. Find Berry: "And the moon falling to earth isn't one of them?!?!" It's the best dialogue exchange in movie history. February 2022, XNUMX
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On the other hand, Charlotte O'Sullivan of the Evening Standard quite liked it, describing Emmerich's newfound dedication as "...less fancy than Dune and less dangerous than Don't Look Up. Still, it's a force to behold." in consideration".
TechRadar will review Moonfall on its own later today, so stay tuned for our full, spoiler-free review tomorrow.