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Moon - Mikey - 06-09-2009
I am intrigued.
<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->"Moon" does something extraordinary: It seems familiar and derivative, yet upends your expectations about science fiction and surprises you over and over. Melancholy and mesmerizing, equal parts mystery and character drama, it keeps you guessing until the end.
The intelligent, assured debut from director Duncan Jones — David Bowie's son, though we won't have to describe him in terms of his famous father for much longer — harkens to the fundamentals of the genre, in which people and provocative ideas mattered more than shiny gadgets and splashy effects. The fact that it's anchored by a subtle yet powerful performance from Sam Rockwell in two separate roles — he's practically the entire cast — is a prime example of this back-to-basics approach.
Rockwell stars as Sam Bell, an astronaut in the near future living in a station on the far side of the moon. He's about to wrap up his three-year contract mining helium, the Earth's main energy source, and he's eager to get home to his wife and little girl.
One day, amid his daily routine, he starts seeing and hearing things and his health begins to deteriorate. The base's computer, Gerty (voiced by Kevin Spacey), listens and tries to be sympathetic, tries to assuage him. But then another version of Sam arrives: younger, fitter, more organized and businesslike.
The character itself provides much of the film's allure (Nathan Parker wrote the script from Jones' story idea): Is this a clone? Or is the second Sam a figment of his imagination, a product of his isolation? You can interpret it any number of ways; "Moon" obviously has some heady, philosophical ideas about identity and individual purpose on its mind.
Rockwell pulls off the impressive balancing act of creating two distinct people, yet melding their shared traits as parts of a whole. You really feel for both of them and the confusing situation in which they've found themselves. And for a low-budget movie, the effects are seamless when the two Sams interact, such as a Ping-Pong game or a knock-down, drag-out fight.
Jones has said character-driven science fiction movies like "Blade Runner" and "Alien" influenced him, but the long shadow of Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" is also unmistakable — in the themes of loneliness and fear, the clunky look of the space station, the lighting, and of course in the computer's soothing, ubiquitous voice. But again, that's a great example of how "Moon" doesn't take you where you think you're going to go. It's easy to assume that Gerty isn't to be trusted from the precedent of HAL 9000 and Spacey's honeyed menace — "You don't seem like yourself today. Sam, it might help you to talk about it" — despite the yellow smiley-face icon on the monitor that changes to a frown when he's showing concern.
Adding to the uneasy mood is the haunting score from Clint Mansell, longtime collaborator of Darren Aronofsky, which will stay with you afterward. It's not surprising that, given his background, Jones would be drawn to transforming music. But you may want to stop yourself before thinking up any easy puns about Major Tom and ground control; despite his lineage, this is clearly an artist who's ready to leave his own distinctive stamp on the culture.
"Moon," a Sony Pictures Classics release, is rated R for language. Running time: 97 minutes. Four stars out of four.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Moon - rok - 06-09-2009
I'm trying to win passes for next Monday's sneak preview here in town. I've been looking forward to seeing this movie for several months now.
Moon - bz - 06-09-2009
How the hell is helium the main energy source?
Moon - rok - 06-10-2009
<!--quoteo(post=43383:date=Jun 9 2009, 10:51 PM:name=bz)-->QUOTE (bz @ Jun 9 2009, 10:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->How the hell is helium the main energy source?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is from the mid-90s, but it gives you an idea of why Helium Fusion Energy could be valuable one day:
<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->The world population will increase to ten billion people by the year 2050. By that time we will have exhausted all of the 7 trillion barrels of oil, equivalent to any kind of economically recoverable fossil fuel on earth. We will have run out of places to store the toxic wastes from our nuclear fission reactors. We will have no alternative resource but fusion energy.
The physics of present fusion energy, involving the fusion of deuterium and tritium in a thermonuclear reactor, the TOKAMAK, is approaching resolution but problems of reactor materials survival remain, which will probably take 30 years to work out. This is due to the very destructive neutrons generated in the reaction process.
In contrast, helium-3 is a completely clean source of energy. Two helium-3 atoms are fused in a thermonuclear reactor to produce normal helium and energy. The fuel is non-radioactive, the process produces no radioactivity, and the residue produces no radioactivity. It is the perfect energy source. However the helium-3 reaction takes place at 10 times the temperature of the TOKAMAK. It will probably take 10 to 20 years to work out the physics of containing the reaction.
There is very little helium-3 on earth, only that which was left here when the earth was formed, and some additional amount which we have made in our reactors since then. It is generated from nuclear reactions in the sun and comes to us on solar wind. None lands on earth because it is diverted away by the earth's magnetic field. But is does land on the moon. The moon is loaded with it. It is estimated that there is ten times as much helium-3 energy on the moon as our total historical inventory of fossil fuels. 25 tonnes of helium-3 (one shuttle load) would supply the total US energy needs for a whole year in 1993. The shuttle load would have a value of about 25 billion dollars, which would equate to oil at $7 per barrel.
But to mine it on the moon and to get it here we will need a space station by 2000 AD and a permanent human resident colony on the moon by 2010 AD. The by-products of processing ore on the moon will provide enough necessary materials like oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, etc. to make the colony self-sustaining.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Moon - bz - 06-10-2009
Ahhh...interesting. I was envisioning some alchemist approach at removing a proton...which would make me angry.
Moon - rok - 06-10-2009
<!--quoteo(post=43438:date=Jun 10 2009, 09:37 AM:name=bz)-->QUOTE (bz @ Jun 10 2009, 09:37 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->Ahhh...interesting. I was envisioning some alchemist approach at removing a proton...which would make me angry.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Alchemy is reserved for Jodorowsky films. Then again, since it's Bowie's son, I wouldn't have put it past him.
Moon - Butcher - 06-10-2009
<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pIexG8179K8&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pIexG8179K8&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>
I'm excited.
Moon - veryzer - 06-12-2009
yep, the trailor hooked me. i'm in.
Moon - rok - 01-13-2010
I watched this last night, and I have to say, it was a bit different than I expected, but not in a negative way. The "twist" occurs midway through the film, but there are still plenty of unexpected more subtle surprises from that point on. Sam Rockwell was great, playing multiple roles of varying degrees on his personality scale. I love movies like this because they ask deeper questions about the ethics of technology and science that most sci-fi films are too scared to even go near. The tone and themes reminded me a lot of 2001 obviously (Gerty = HAL), Bladerunner, and certain parts of the first Matrix, at least on the philosophical end of things. I'm not ready to label this a new classic, but it is a very solid, intelligent film. It kept me interested throughout, and even the slow parts left me constantly second-guessing myself. I wish more sci-fi were made like this today, because this definitely has much more in common with the cerebral stories of P.K. Dick and Richard Matheson, and not the action-infatuated popcorny good vs evil stories by Roddenberry and others, which have become so plain vanilla and ubiquitous in the past 20 years.
4/5 stars
Moon - Brock - 01-13-2010
I really want to see this.
Moon - Brock - 01-16-2010
I watched this tonight. Eh, I'm not sure about it yet. It was ok and kept my interest but I guess I was hoping for more.
Sam Rockwell was very good in it though.
Moon - rok - 01-17-2010
I never said it was a classic, just a very good movie. I had problems with the ending, but all-in-all I stick by my review that it was a more thoughtful sci-fi film than most.
Moon - BT - 01-29-2010
I'd say it's pretty close to a classic. I had it all figured out even before the movie started, but I realized the big twist that I had envisioned actually occurs 30 minutes into the movie. So while I saw that coming, the great part of the movie is that it in now way hinges on that twist. There was still an hour left.
I thought it was pretty emotional, and Rockwell was pretty amazing.
I'm a big fan.
Moon - rok - 01-29-2010
<!--quoteo(post=77948:date=Jan 28 2010, 10:37 PM:name=BT)-->QUOTE (BT @ Jan 28 2010, 10:37 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->I'd say it's pretty close to a classic. I had it all figured out even before the movie started, but I realized the big twist that I had envisioned actually occurs 30 minutes into the movie. So while I saw that coming, the great part of the movie is that it in now way hinges on that twist. There was still an hour left.
I thought it was pretty emotional, and Rockwell was pretty amazing.
I'm a big fan.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It's funny, I was just thinking about this movie again tonight. I actually wanted to watch it again just to see what I may have missed the first time. The more I think about, the more it's grown on me for sure.
Moon - Mikey - 01-29-2010
<!--quoteo(post=77949:date=Jan 28 2010, 11:05 PM:name=rok)-->QUOTE (rok @ Jan 28 2010, 11:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=77948:date=Jan 28 2010, 10:37 PM:name=BT)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BT @ Jan 28 2010, 10:37 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->I'd say it's pretty close to a classic. I had it all figured out even before the movie started, but I realized the big twist that I had envisioned actually occurs 30 minutes into the movie. So while I saw that coming, the great part of the movie is that it in now way hinges on that twist. There was still an hour left.
I thought it was pretty emotional, and Rockwell was pretty amazing.
I'm a big fan.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It's funny, I was just thinking about this movie again tonight. I actually wanted to watch it again just to see what I may have missed the first time. The more I think about, the more it's grown on me for sure.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
liar. You just want to be like all the cool kids!