Ever since the mid 90s, Roland Emmerich has attempted time and time again to repackage and recapture the ideas from _Independence Day_. After many failed attempts, I wonder why there’s still a theatrical market for films like this. Or rather, it’s odd that Hollywood thinks there’s still a market for it, given that all of Emmerich’s films since _2012_ have flopped at the box office. And, he’s about to add another one to his resume. This should’ve gotten a streaming release at best, as it belongs in the same category as a film like _The Tomorrow War_. It’s background noise you throw on while you’re doing the dishes or folding the laundry. It's too disposable, phony, poorly acted and boring to pay any serious attention to, let alone pay money for. There's a sense of authenticity and fun to dumb action movies like _Independence Day_ that you're never going to capture with the way these kind of films are made now. You have to applaud Emmerich for making a big, original studio film, but it’s still generic schlock that doesn’t have a single ounce of personality. Fuck whoever financed this.

Edit: after a little bit of digging I found out that the primary investor of this thing is a Chinese company called Tencent Pictures. They’re also responsible for financing other great films such as _Terminator: Dark Fate, Warcraft, Kong: Skull Island, Men in Black: International, Monster Hunter_ and the 2 _Venom_ movies. To put it mildly, it appears that it’s this company’s sole purpose to flood the market with trash, and not exactly the fun kind. Now I know what you’re thinking: maybe their involvement helps with receiving a Chinese release from the CCP? But here’s the problem: _Venom 2_ was banned in China. So, they’re clearly just a bunch of incompetent investors, given that all of their films (the _Venom_ films excluded) have been massive financial and critical flops. The takeaway for Hollywood should be pretty simple: if Tencent wants to invest in your production, cancel all plans before you have another _Moonfall_ on your hands.

2.5/10

Watch it if you’re a fan of Toto, or genuinly laugh at any point during the first scene.

With Moonfall, Roland Emmerich has essentially made an even dumber version of Michael Bay’s Armageddon. There’s not a lot to enjoy here apart from K.C. Houseman’s house cat being named Fuzz Aldrin. With its idiotic premise, hammy dialogue involving some of the most exaggerated emotional speeches ever, stiff acting, unfunny humor, and purposely distorted CGI, Moonfall features an overwhelming amount of frenetic nonsense and has no excuse to be as boring as it is.

Full review: https://boundingintocomics.com/2022/02/04/moonfall-review-its-raining-moon/

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"Moonfall is as insanely nonsensical as one could hope/expect, but it's the lack of entertaining sequences for most of the runtime that brings the film down. The balance between the different, simultaneous action set pieces suffers immensely due to the underdeveloped, bland characters, and the incoherent, messy editing work doesn't help.

Disaster movies always ask for suspension of disbelief, but Roland Emmerich really stretches the absurdity levels by co-writing one of the most scientifically ridiculous screenplays in the history of cinema - the third act revelations are genuinely jaw-dropping.

A surprisingly dull disaster flick across the board, whether it's about the story, action, or even the performances."

Rating: D-

A bit messy, this.

'Moonfall' is actually good in areas that I was expecting it to be bad in and bad in areas I thought it might've been good in. I had caught one of the trailers - at the cinema for a different film - and didn't hold high hopes for it, especially with the 'Don't Look Up' similarity, though thought the humour/silliness might carry it over the line.

Yet, the humour is poor and it's in fact the more serious elements that come to the fore. I honestly enjoyed the sci-fi bits of it and the more dramatic stuff. The comedy is very lame, I don't think I even smirked once to be honest. They should've just played it totally straight, in my opinion anyway. The special effects, meanwhile, are a positive.

The cast, when not comedic, work fairly well together. Halle Berry, John Bradley - who may be at the front of the limp jokes but he as an actor is likeable enough that I didn't dislike him at all - and Patrick Wilson - who I always forget the name of, I was literally trying to recall him throughout the film and I still didn't crack it - are a solid trio when serious. The support cast, spearheaded by Michael Peña, are meh.

Unfortunately it's a 6/10 rating from me. I do like disaster movies - '2012', Roland Emmerich's best, is great - but this one fell short; particularly towards the end. I wouldn't, personally, say it's as bad as that average rating chart suggests, but to each their own of course.

Put on my Letterboxd shirt and went to the theater to see Moonfall, for the movies ✊

Dumb, ambitious, and fun! A little tedious and laughable at times (some of these line deliveries, man), but I loved it :)