Review of In the Shadow of the Moon (2019) by Meritcoba — 02 Oct 2019

It is a pity that this movie turned out the way it did for the premise was interesting, but the execution left much to be desired.

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So this movie is about a man who, as a young beat cop, gets confronted by a series of unusual grislyIt is a pity that this movie turned out the way it did for the premise was interesting, but the execution left much to be desired.

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So this movie is about a man who, as a young beat cop, gets confronted by a series of unusual grisly murders.The subsequent investigation and pursuit seems to end the case eventually. Yet nine years later there is the same series of unusual murders. A copycat at work? And so the movie jumps with nine years intervals from 1988 to 2015, while the protagonist tries to make heads and tails of the strange murders and stop the killer..

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At first you think this is a movie like Zodiac, but this movie isn't anyway close. It has elements of a thriller, a film noir, an action movie and, eventually, a sci-fi movie but it isn't any one of them. It is a mish mash. However,at the core this is the tale of one man's obsession about a repetitive serial killer and what havoc this obsession wreaks for himself and those around him as he slowly loses everything, including his wife, daughter, friends and his sanity..

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Now this might sound like a good story if it wasn't for some bad execution. The biggest issue is that most of the cast is truly unlikable. People are just downright nasty to each other for no apparent reason. Even the closest relationship, the camaraderie between the two cops, comes over as forced: as if they have to pretend to be nice to each other. The whole movie has people being unlikable in general and to those closest to them in particular. And thus there is nobody to care about.

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In addition, most of the roles are unconvincing. Various important relationships are never brought to life. The hero probably loves his wife, but we never get to see that played out, even though this is important to the story. He probably loves his daughter,but she is just enough in the movie as to let us know that he is a bad father. Unfortunately, his relation to this daughter is also of the utmost importance to the movie and again it is not brought to live.

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What is also unconvincing is the gradual falling apart of the lead. Such a role requires powerful acting like Jack Nicholson did in the shining. The lead actor of this movie just seems unable to express the kind of madness and obsession that should convince you that this man is losing his marbles. This is mostly because this is never really shown. With each nine year leap we start of with the character already being in a certain way and during the brief period before the next leap we do see his decline progress. Instead we get mostly a visual clue: he gets a craggy beard glued on, or remark from a bystander.

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Now the above issues are the big ones, but there are many weird moments that contribute to weakness of the movie. There are the Bay style action scenes that do not seem to belong in a movie like this. There is the nonsensical science behind it all which probably should not have been explained at it just turns it into magical nonsense. There is the murder weapon, that apparently doesn't get investigated even though the police are at a loss where it is from and how it is made. Even more, it never gets explained why that peculiar weapon with its shocking method of killing(it causes brains melting out of your ears) is used. Perhaps the last thing to mention is that the movie blatantly reveals the plot. So you do not need to piece things together.. it will be explained to you..

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Another problem is that the movie never gets to grips with the problem of time travel. If you think that the murderer is using time travel, will this knowledge not inevitably start to gnaw on you. Would your actions make any difference or will your actions be the cause of what happens? What if we killed Hitler? Maybe a new one would stand up that wins World War 2 by turning the US and Russia into nuclear wastelands. Or maybe nothing happens at all, other than that your attempt itself causes the man to become the mass murdering freak that he was. Does it matter what you do?.. ..

All of this points to a movie that is unbalanced. There is not enough time to spend on what matters and there is time wasted on things that do not matter. It is getting complicated and the movie doesn't handled that well. However, most of it could have been forgiven if it makes you care about the people. But as said, they are an unlikable bunch. And there, my friend, is the root of all evil.