Moonfall

The premise of Moonfall is that the moon is an alien-made structure that was put in place for some unknown reason (which will become apparent later).  Astronauts Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) and Jo Fowler (Halle Berry)  are working on a satellite when they are attacked by a mysterious black cloud thingee. It swirls around with intelligent appearing malevolence and though they escape, it ends up causing another astronaut’s death.  No one believes Brian about the black cloud and he is blamed (and fired) for the catastrophe.   The movie then skips ahead ten years where the moon is acting weird, is off course, and heading for Earth.  Oh no!!  The U. S. military’s bright and  apparently only idea to stop this is to nuke the moon, yes, you heard me right, nuke the moon!  Since there are apparently no other astronauts or rockets available, Jo and Brian find an old relic and decide to go up into the moon and save the day.  Wait, they need help.  Why not take an overweight conspiracy theorist who has some serious anxiety issues and has never been in space?  Because his theories appear to be on target! That is where K.C. Housman (Game of Thrones’ John Bradley) comes in.  The movie is full of government cover ups, conspiracy theories, sentient A.I, kids in danger, separated families,and bone-headed decisions.  I found most of the movie silly and the reason for the ‘moon fall’ kind of dumb.  There is a large amount of exposition in the last half hour of the movie.  And a lot of the action, particularly the movements of the moon, really strains credulity…be ready to suspend a LOT of disbelief. Of course,in all movies where the Earth is in danger, a major landmark must be destroyed.  You will have to watch for yourself to see which one they get in this movie.  Should you see this movie?  I definitely wouldn’t pay to see it in a theatre, but on a rainy Sunday afternoon, if nothing else was showing, it would definitely pass the time.