Review of Moonfall (2022) by Rebecca31 — 12 Feb 2022

Well by now you’ve heard about a very strong contender for worst film of 2022, I know it’s early in the year but it’s hard to imagine anything being quite as bad as Moonfall this year.

Shockingly I had a certain expectation from director Roland Emmerich, who gave us films like The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day. They’re by no means masterpieces but they are entertaining disaster movies and The Day After Tomorrow is up there as one of my favourites. I’d argue that Moonfall is better than another failed disaster movie, Geostorm, although I guess that’s not saying much. While Geostorm lacks an actual geostorm, at least Moonfall delivers what it promises, a moon falling. Yes you heard that right, some mysterious black alien goo has knocked the moon from it’s orbit, sending it on a collision course which then causes absolute catastrophic scenes on earth. Extreme tidal waves, diminishing oxygen levels and anti gravity spots. So naturally it’s up to former astronaut Jo Fowler (Halle Berry), disgraced astronaut Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson), and the local conspiracy theorist KC Houseman (John Bradley) to save the day.

It’s been described as about five different disaster movies rolled into one and that’s very accurate. There’s one movie going on in space and about four others happening back on earth. Between the floods, water tornados, car chases and ordinary people bouncing around earth like they’re on the actual moon it’s hard to believe all of this madness is crammed into one movie. I can only hope Halle Berry and Patrick Wilson got paid enough for this rubbish. I don’t know how they made it through their scenes with a straight face. If there was ever a clear case of a “gimmie the paycheck” performances it’s these two. They’re better actors than this horrendous movie would have you believe. Moonfall is daft, you’ll feel idiotic watching it but I did laugh at some moments of sheer stupidity.

There’s definitely an audience for disaster movies and there’s also a slightly smaller audience for truly awful disaster movies. So when the terrible reviews for Moonfall started emerging it either caused you to rush to the cinema to see this car crash of a movie or stay well away. The question now remains, has Moonfall fallen into the “so bad it’s good” category? No, I’m sorry to say it hasn’t and unless you really have nothing else to do and want to have your brain switched off for a bit then I can’t recommend Moonfall. It’s dreadful from start to finish. There are better ways to spend your time and it just doesn’t have enough laughs to make up for how dull and stupid it is. Not recommended, avoid.