New Moon
Tuesday June 09, 2009 | Contributor: Jennifer Wright

Lately, I can’t help but wonder if science fiction films are making a comeback. First, there was the universally enjoyable Star Trek. Now, Moon is set to debut in theaters everywhere. I was thrilled to be invited to the Popular Mechanics advance screening of the film. The movie has already garnered a substantial fan base. Slashfilm.com editor Peter Sciretta contended, “I’m convinced Moon is at the beginning of a new renaissance of indie sci-fi movies which will challenge Hollywood’s big budget effects.”





James Meigs, the editor of Popular Mechanics, introduced the film and talked about his days as an editor at entertainment magazines. He confided that while he loves working at PM, he misses the feeling of, “going to Sundance and just seeing something that really blows you away.” He also – in a more practical vein - remarked that Popular Mechanics had studied the film’s science references in depth and that the mining techniques to harvest energy from the moon seen in the movie could potentially be employed.


Duncan Jones, the director of the film and the son of David Bowie (he’s also known as Zowie Bowie), also spoke before the showing. He said he was thrilled to screen it before a scholarly audience, and his excitement was rivaled only by the time he previewed the movie at NASA. While he confessed that, “The moon has a weird, mythic nature to it,” he also explained that he attempted to insure the film was “hard science fiction” based solidly around facts.





All these science references, frankly, filled me with a little dread. I kept imagining how non-commercial the movie would probably be, most likely revolving around some guy plodding along in space giving lengthy discussions about harvesting energy. I’m not good with slow science fiction pacing. I’ve been known to fast forward through massive sections of 2001: A Space Odyssey (almost the entire movie, really).  And, as Gerty, the robot played by Kevin Spacey, came onscreen at the beginning of Moon and started talking in a strangely monotone voice, I couldn’t help feel that I’d seen this movie before (and no, I’m not referring only to the ill-fated K-Pax).
The next hour and a half proved my initial expectations completely wrong. Moon is a difficult movie to describe without spoiling any of the ingenious surprises within it. It is about the life of an astronaut named Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), who has been working for an energy company named Lunar on the moon for three years. He’s about to complete his contract and go home to his wife and daughter when his mind seems to begin to deteriorate.





At first I suspected either evil-doing on the part of the robot (I didn’t skip that part of 2001: A Space Odyssey) or, more likely, extreme loneliness. After all, Sam Bell spends the first few minutes talking to plants and sending messages back to the executives claiming that, “Three years is just too damn long.” However, after a routine expedition goes horribly wrong, it becomes clear that something much more nefarious is at work.


The plot is brilliantly inventive, and every time one mystery was solved, a new one seemed to rise to take its place. It was, as the woman next to me remarked at the film’s closing, “Like the best episode of the Twilight Zone ever.” The issues it raises are ones that everyone – not just a Popular Mechanics crowd – will find both thought provoking and incredibly entertaining.