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Moon (Directed By David Bowie's Son + Starring Sam Rockwell)

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Korey said:
I like the premise, but I think the script could have been tightened up a bit. Things are revealed at an even pace, and as a result the buildup isn't as intense as it could be, and the climax falls flat. At the end,
he knocks down a communications jammer and the camera hangs on a computer screen as it suddenly flashes "Live Feed Available", as if the company wouldn't immediately take care of that
...just seemed kind of silly.
If one accepts the premise that
the original Sam once worked in that base and left after three years to return to his family, and clones of him were made to continue the work
then it would make sense that
the computer system was programmed for him to be able to communicate, and the jammers were placed as a quick preventative measure. The clone system was designed pretty efficiently, and no clone seems to have ever done anything but that which he was programmed to accomplish, so doing anything more than setting up jammers wasn't necessary. If anything more than jamming was done, the clone might get suspicious and attempt to bypass the lock.
 
Thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The music was great too! Had a lonely haunting feel to it. The plot was great -
though I did pick that that they would be clones
.

One thing that I didn't understand though was, why did no. 2 Sam go looking for the harvester where he found no. 1 Sam in the first place? Why did he so badly want to get out of the station? Oh and who was the girl that Sam no. 1 was seeing?
 
Anksta said:
Thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The music was great too! Had a lonely haunting feel to it. The plot was great -
though I did pick that that they would be clones
.

One thing that I didn't understand though was, why did no. 2 Sam go looking for the harvester where he found no. 1 Sam in the first place? Why did he so badly want to get out of the station? Oh and who was the girl that Sam no. 1 was seeing?

It's been a bit since I watched the movie, but I thought he was going out to the harvester because it was damaged, and he wanted to see if he could repair it. I think No 2 wanted to get out because he realized he was a clone, and wanted to find out who was responsible. No 1 knew he was sick, and was extremely depressed after discovering the last three years of his life were all a waste of time, so he reacted in a different fashion from the newly "born" No 2.
 
Anksta said:
Thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The music was great too! Had a lonely haunting feel to it. The plot was great -
though I did pick that that they would be clones
.
Me too. Part of the problem was the trailer I saw for the movie pretty much spelled it out. =\

Anksta said:
One thing that I didn't understand though was, why did no. 2 Sam go looking for the harvester where he found no. 1 Sam in the first place? Why did he so badly want to get out of the station? Oh and who was the girl that Sam no. 1 was seeing?
I think it was because
#2 was mad that Gerty and Lunar Industries were treating him like a child and wouldn't let him go out and diagnose the problem. He may have felt something was fishy about it but mostly I think he felt like he was being patronised.
 
wow. watched this last night - what a haunting, thought-provoking movie. was so awesome.

the score was excellent too!
 
Just got my Moon BD in the mail today, I'm definitely looking forward to watch it. I almost always enjoy unique approaches to Sci Fi.
 
Neuromancer said:
Me too. Part of the problem was the trailer I saw for the movie pretty much spelled it out. =\

I'm really glad I never saw a single trailer for this movie. I wish it was so easy to do that for all movies.
 
Teh Hamburglar said:
i watched the trailer just now and came in here to see if i had the movie nailed.

I did. GAF saved me 10 bucks.
I think everyone saw the so-called "twist" coming, that's hardly the only good point about the movie.
 
Teh Hamburglar said:
i watched the trailer just now and came in here to see if i had the movie nailed.

I did. GAF saved me 10 bucks.


I don't think that knowing about one particular part of the movie means that you have no need to see it.
 
Teh Hamburglar said:
i watched the trailer just now and came in here to see if i had the movie nailed.

I did. GAF saved me 10 bucks.

I feel sorry for you bud. I knew within ten minutes I think that was the point so it was out of the way, the mystery part. Brilliant film.
 
Watched this on blu ray a couple of nights ago. I love it when a movie keeps me thinking about it long after I finish watching it.

Loved every minute of it.
 
Teh Hamburglar said:
i watched the trailer just now and came in here to see if i had the movie nailed.

I did. GAF saved me 10 bucks.

You watched the trailer that infamously and blatantly gives away the twist and are patting yourself on the back for "figuring it out"? And you're also using that as an excuse not to watch an excellent movie?

Oh, Internet forums.
 
Zeliard said:
You watched the trailer that infamously and blatantly gives away the twist and are patting yourself on the back for "figuring it out"? And you're also using that as an excuse not to watch an excellent movie?

Oh, Internet forums.
:lol
 
Zeliard said:
You watched the trailer that infamously and blatantly gives away the twist and are patting yourself on the back for "figuring it out"? And you're also using that as an excuse not to watch an excellent movie?

Oh, Internet forums.


Trailer did nothing that made me want to rush out to the theater to see it. I didn't say I wasn't going to see it but that I'm not running out to the theater to buy a ticket. But nice job of twisting my post for a snarky comment. You must have felt pretty good about that all night.
 
Teh Hamburglar said:
Trailer did nothing that made me want to rush out to the theater to see it. I didn't say I wasn't going to see it but that I'm not running out to the theater to buy a ticket. But nice job of twisting my post for a snarky comment. You must have felt pretty good about that all night.
You're LTTP. It's $1 out of your local RedBox.
 
Teh Hamburglar said:
Trailer did nothing that made me want to rush out to the theater to see it. I didn't say I wasn't going to see it but that I'm not running out to the theater to buy a ticket. But nice job of twisting my post for a snarky comment. You must have felt pretty good about that all night.
As good as you felt with your initial attempt at a 'snarkycomment'?

Cmon dude don't get mad. You got a litlle like you tried to give. It really is a pretty good movie. You should give it a shot sometime.
 
Anksta said:
One thing that I didn't understand though was, why did no. 2 Sam go looking for the harvester where he found no. 1 Sam in the first place? Why did he so badly want to get out of the station? Oh and who was the girl that Sam no. 1 was seeing?
The girl was his grown daughter
 
Anksta said:
Thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The music was great too! Had a lonely haunting feel to it. The plot was great -
though I did pick that that they would be clones
.

One thing that I didn't understand though was, why did no. 2 Sam go looking for the harvester where he found no. 1 Sam in the first place? Why did he so badly want to get out of the station? Oh and who was the girl that Sam no. 1 was seeing?
I think he went out because he doesn't know how he made it back to the medical bay.
 
Great film. Saw the twist coming fairly early, but it didn't inhibit my enjoyment of the story. GERTY is awesome--great casting :lol Very creepy. Aside from the way it spoke, I think the emoticons were what sold it.
Kick me
 
Nameless said:
Aside from the way it spoke, I think the emoticons were what sold it.
gerty_smiley.gif
 
Just saw the movie, and holy crap I am blown away. That sequence of scenes where Sam
calls his daughter, hears his own voice
, then breaks down saying "I just want to go home" while the earth is shown in the background of his solitary lunar rover was amazing.
 
enjoyed it more than I expected. Saw one trailer and then avoided this thread and other info about it until I'd gotten to watch it.

Never saw the twist coming - always assumed he was going mad, and the movie would be about his descent into madness.
 
Movie was ok.

I think it fell alittle flat though... There was really no climax.... there was no bad guy.... there was really no drama....

I thought it was good... but it was really missing something... It was like the first half of a movie. Because there was no conflict yet, there was no climax and there was no resolution.

I think this movie is a definite rental.
 
This is the hidden gem of 2009. It's certainly not all given away with the trailer. Also, the acting and the score were phenomenal.

edit: I love how Sam Rockwell's name is repeated over and over on the movie cover.:lol
 
methane47 said:
Movie was ok.

I think it fell alittle flat though... There was really no climax.... there was no bad guy.... there was really no drama....

I thought it was good... but it was really missing something... It was like the first half of a movie. Because there was no conflict yet, there was no climax and there was no resolution.

I think this movie is a definite rental.

Movies have to have a "bad guy" (:lol) and a definite conclusion? You must have watched a very narrow selection of movies.
 
McBacon said:
Movies have to have a "bad guy" (:lol) and a definite conclusion? You must have watched a very narrow selection of movies.


Well... the thing about this movie.. is they Tease you the ENTIRE time about a bad guy.First..you think Gerty will be the evil robot... Oh wait.. nope... then its the evil corportation .... then its the rescue group....

But none of these bad guys every materialize...

And no.. a movie doesn't have to have a conclusion ... but i just felt that the movie was kinda paced badly.. The twist was pretty much revealed in the first 20 minutes or so? And the rest of the movie is kind of just filler.

They would have probably done better to just hold out the twist till the VERY end of the movie.. ."Ohhhh you're a
clone? No YOU"RE THE CLONE.. uhoh.. we're both clones ... etc

Look the acting was awesome, music was great ... like i said the movie was ok.. but i felt it could have been better... if they just rearranged some of the events.
 
methane47 said:
Well... the thing about this movie.. is they Tease you the ENTIRE time about a bad guy.First..you think Gerty will be the evil robot... Oh wait.. nope... then its the evil corportation .... then its the rescue group....

But none of these bad guys every materialize...

And no.. a movie doesn't have to have a conclusion ... but i just felt that the movie was kinda paced badly.. The twist was pretty much revealed in the first 20 minutes or so? And the rest of the movie is kind of just filler.

They would have probably done better to just hold out the twist till the VERY end of the movie.. ."Ohhhh you're a
clone? No YOU"RE THE CLONE.. uhoh.. we're both clones ... etc

I think you missed the point completely. The rest of the movie is not 'filler', it's character. While the movie did discuss these 'bad guys', who set up the whole unethical situation that the character lived in, the movie was really about Sam. The
clone stuff wasn't just a cheap reveal at the end of the movie. The clone stuff, apart from being a core part of why the corporation was 'evil', worked as a plot device to examine the life of one character.

This is the real point of the movie - examing the life of one guy and seeing him change. At the start of the movie we see older Sam. He's mellow, talking to plants, building stuff, being constructive. Then we meet the sam-clone - and we think, why is this guy such an angry dick?

The answer is that it's still Sam. But this is the Sam of three years ago, the angry young man if you will, who was having problems with his marriage. He was violent, prone to breaking the rules and aggresive. He then encrounters an older version of himself. A more mature Sam who had experienced time on his own and started to reflect about his life. They come off as two different people because Sam really has changed a lot in his years on the Moon.

Rarely do you get to meet your 'younger self' and see how much you've grown and changed. Here, Sam gets to do that. He reflects at one point "Was I really that bad? I can see why my wife was having problems with me." He's noticed his maturity as a person.

None of that is apparent on the first time through. But when you re-watch it the movie really changes.
 
Jexhius said:
I think you missed the point completely. The rest of the movie is not 'filler', it's character. While the movie did discuss these 'bad guys', who set up the whole unethical situation that the character lived in, the movie was really about Sam. The
clone stuff wasn't just a cheap reveal at the end of the movie. The clone stuff, apart from being a core part of why the corporation was 'evil', worked as a plot device to examine the life of one character.

This is the real point of the movie - examing the life of one guy and seeing him change. At the start of the movie we see older Sam. He's mellow, talking to plants, building stuff, being constructive. Then we meet the sam-clone - and we think, why is this guy such an angry dick?

The answer is that it's still Sam. But this is the Sam of three years ago, the angry young man if you will, who was having problems with his marriage. He was violent, prone to breaking the rules and aggresive. He then encrounters an older version of himself. A more mature Sam who had experienced time on his own and started to reflect about his life. They come off as two different people because Sam really has changed a lot in his years on the Moon.

Rarely do you get to meet your 'younger self' and see how much you've grown and changed. Here, Sam gets to do that. He reflects at one point "Was I really that bad? I can see why my wife was having problems with me." He's noticed his maturity as a person.

None of that is apparent on the first time through. But when you re-watch it the movie really changes.


Also
at one point it's mentioned that the smallest genetic anomaly in the clones can have a dramatic effect on their personailty
 
methane47 said:
Movie was ok.

I think it fell alittle flat though... There was really no climax.... there was no bad guy.... there was really no drama....

I thought it was good... but it was really missing something... It was like the first half of a movie. Because there was no conflict yet, there was no climax and there was no resolution.

I think this movie is a definite rental.
=\

I for one am glad not all movies follow your formula. Fortunately there are people that are willing to do things a little differently.
 
My girlfriend saw them filming Duncan's new movie Source Code here in Chicago last week. They were at the Bean.. she didn't recognize Michelle Monaghan (sp) and didn't look it up. Once she found out she'd missed Jake, she was gutted. :lol
 
Neuromancer said:
=\

I for one am glad not all movies follow your formula. Fortunately there are people that are willing to do things a little differently.


his post is pretty good though, outside of the not having a bad guy. moon doesn't teach us anything about ourselves, doesn't have any tension, rising action or anything to sustain the plot throughout the movie. it's a visual mess, the external shots are plain ugly and the interior shots bring nothing new to the genre. and more to the point you don't learn anything about the character, the situation or anything else after the first half hour of the movie. philip k dick who wrote this story thirty times at least had the honesty to keep it to 20 pages.

it's a movie that money made, not love or talent. both versions of solaris deal with these very same ideas but made with maturity.
 
swoon said:
his post is pretty good though, outside of the not having a bad guy. moon doesn't teach us anything about ourselves, doesn't have any tension, rising action or anything to sustain the plot throughout the movie. it's a visual mess, the external shots are plain ugly and the interior shots bring nothing new to the genre. and more to the point you don't learn anything about the character, the situation or anything else after the first half hour of the movie. philip k dick who wrote this story thirty times at least had the honesty to keep it to 20 pages.

it's a movie that money made, not love or talent. both versions of solaris deal with these very same ideas but made with maturity.
By 'his post is pretty good' you really just mean you agree with him. There was a bad guy in the movie. It was
the people behind the cloning program at Lunar Industries Corporation
. (I guess they should have thrown in a guy twirling his mustache to appease you. :D )

Also I think it did have tension, in fact I think it had a lot of it, what do you call the relationship between
the two Sams
?

I think visually it was fantastic, I saw it both in the theater and at home on Bluray and I think the interior and exterior shots were perfect.

Long story short, I disagree with you in just about every way. I'm sorry you didn't like it though, but not every movie is for everyone.
 
it means it was pretty good, outside of him not IDing the obvious bad guy.

the problem i have is that you don't disagree , you have this attitude that because he doesn't like the film he missing some grand point about film itself and that this is film takes some risks, which i mean it's OK if you like the film, it's not horrible, but at the very least it's a safe film that tackles its issue with the depth and resolution of that simpsons's treehouse episode.

the tension falls flat because there is no risk to their interactions. there is no outcome if they fight, fall in love, become best friends and if they die, it doesn't matter they have infinte time and chances to solve this mystery. there's a very little reward:
so sam goes home and tells the world about the evil company. are they even evil for cloning one willful person to create clean power for the world? what is the reward for exposing (couldn't it already be known and exposed?) this crime? dependence on oil?
 
swoon said:
it means it was pretty good, outside of him not IDing the obvious bad guy.

the problem i have is that you don't disagree , you have this attitude that because he doesn't like the film he missing some grand point about film itself and that this is film takes some risks, which i mean it's OK if you like the film, it's not horrible, but at the very least it's a safe film that tackles its issue with the depth and resolution of that simpsons's treehouse episode.

the tension falls flat because there is no risk to their interactions. there is no outcome if they fight, fall in love, become best friends and if they die, it doesn't matter they have infinte time and chances to solve this mystery. there's a very little reward:
so sam goes home and tells the world about the evil company. are they even evil for cloning one willful person to create clean power for the world? what is the reward for exposing (couldn't it already be known and exposed?) this crime? dependence on oil?
I don't think I ever once said that.
 
Your posts are a bit meandering, but I can sort it out.

swoon said:
...(D)oesn't have any tension, rising action or anything to sustain the plot throughout the movie.

This is odd for starters, there's lots of tension between
Sam and Gerty, The Two Sams, Sam's race against his own death, Sam's race against the clock that ticks down throughout the movie telling you when people are going to turn up and kill both of them for uncovering the secret.

swoon said:
it's a visual mess, the external shots are plain ugly and the interior shots bring nothing new to the genre.

I don't remember anyone calling the film ugly, but that can be your opinion.

Why does a film have to invent new cinematography, mise-en-scene etc? How many films actually do that? How many films add something "new to the genre", whatever that means.

swoon said:
and more to the point you don't learn anything about the character, the situation or anything else after the first half hour of the movie.

As I discussed above we don't do anything but learn about the character after the first half hour. That's pretty much what the movie is about.

swoon said:
philip k dick who wrote this story thirty times at least had the honesty to keep it to 20 pages.

Irrelevant. Books aren't films.

swoon said:
it's a movie that money made, not love or talent. both versions of solaris deal with these very same ideas but made with maturity.

Huh? This isn't some Hollywood blockbuster, it's a pretty small film. I can't imagine anyone working on this for any other reason then they really love what they are doing. Also, what does maturity mean? Solaris is dealing with some fairly different themes, and that you confuse the two causes me to question your ability to understand the movie.

swoon said:
it's a safe film that tackles its issue with the depth and resolution of that simpsons's treehouse episode.

I can't respond to this random name calling.

swoon said:
the tension falls flat because there is no risk to their interactions. there is no outcome if they fight, fall in love, become best friends and if they die, it doesn't matter they have infinte time and chances to solve this mystery.

Once again, I discussed tension above. I don't know what you mean by infinite time either, this movie literally has a clock-ticking down throughout the end of the film!

swoon said:
there's a very little reward:
so sam goes home and tells the world about the evil company. are they even evil for cloning one willful person to create clean power for the world? what is the reward for exposing (couldn't it already be known and exposed?) this crime? dependence on oil?

It's called 'justice'. He's writting a fairly large wrong that has affected
his whole, short life, and the lives of the other sam's.
That's pretty much what a conclusion is.

It's hard to tell what you're talking about between your posts, it seems a mixture of unsubstantiated criticism and random name calling mixed with inaccuracies.
 
I would like to contribute to this thread, but Jexhius and Neuromancer seem to have voiced my thoughts pretty well. The movie wasn't perfect, but it was really good. A shame about the trailer giving away a lot of the early suspense...
 
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