The premise is, astronaut Sam Bell (played by Sam Rockwell) is contracted for three years to live on the moon to mine Earth’s primary source of energy, Helium-3. He is coming to the end of his contract, but is starting to experience headaches and hallucinations. His only company on the base is a robotic assistant named “GERTY” voiced by Kevin Spacey.
My first thought was why would you have only one man on the moon to work on the complex? It just doesn’t make sense. After an accident on the surface, we soon realize that he is not the only one on the moon. He finds out that a clone of him has been activated because the company thought he was dead. After the clone is activated, a rescue team is sent to the base to “help” Sam. The two Sams struggle to come to grips with each other’s existence, each one believing the other to be the clone. There are many revelations throughout the movie, but the most heartbreaking had to be when you find out the clones only have a shelf life of about three years. Also, neither one of them are the “real” Sam — all their memoirs are implanted.
Moon deals with themes of isolation, loneliness, long-distance relationships and the question of if we were put in the situation, would we actually like or even get on with ourselves. One of the best attributes of this film is that it is serious sci-fi, though there is some humor. I feel that sci-fi shines most brightly when you take the extraordinary seriously. It makes you put yourself in the main character’s shoes: “How would I react?” “What would I do if I was him?” These are questions you ask yourself during the film.
Moon was made for a small budget but delivers big in the acting department. Sam Rockwell is basically the only actor in the film, but his conversations with himself are amazing. His interactions with GERTY make you feel as if this robot has an emotional attachment to Sam Bell, which is helped by GERTY having smiley face graphics to project what the robot is “feeling” something for Sam.
Even though it was filmed on a small budget, the set design seems very real. They used fantastic model work for the exterior shots and for the lunar rover shots. You know what you’re looking at is a model, but it still looks better than a lot of CGI shots I have seen in other films — not to mention the cinematography and score are beautiful and very effective.
You could classify “Moon” as a retro take on sci-fi and the anti-“Transformers.” This is what science fiction is all about; it’s about the characters and how they interact with their environment. I believe it is your duty as a sci-fi fan to give this movie a chance; it made me think about how great sci-fi can be if taken seriously.
To me, this film turns out to be one of the most interesting sci-fi movies to come out in the last 10 years.
Jason Dyer was born in Saginaw, Michigan and currently resides in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin. He has worked as a freelance writer for the past few years and projects vary from corporate work, to comics, to MMA coverage. He started reading comics in the early 90’s when his mother brought them home to help her dyslexic son with reading. He started writing comics 2 years ago, and after a long period of searching for an artist he self published 2 Sides of Jack late last year. 
Merin on 
Sounds interesting. I’ll have to rent this.