Review of Moonshot (2022) by Jluis_001 — 02 Apr 2022

Romantic comedies often boast too much about not trying something innovative in their formula. Most of the time it's too difficult because any viewer is more than capable of intuiting how it will end just by watching the lead actors in their marketing material, and 99% of the time they will be right. Now, while Moonshot does might seem different, it's fair to ask whether a film that involves space trips to Mars should feel so lazy and exanimous.

Cole Sprouse and his brother really don't know how to act and Cole proves it again here. Lana Condor, who's nothing special as a performer either, outdoes him in every scene they share.

Now we have to add the huge problem I've had with films of this type involving somewhat teenagers because they give them dialogue that sounds as artificial as their relationships.

So it becomes complicated to connect with them, and not because some of their problems are not real or compelling, but because they don't feel natural. The romantic construction is, as you might expect, quite simple. In this stuff you have to be practical no matter how much your surroundings try to be more ambitious.

There are no surprises and no mistakes. You know where it all goes and of course how it all ends.

I'm not against basic, sugar-coated movies for audiences who just want to be entertained, but I'll never be in favor of stories that make no effort whatsoever to break away from the norm.