THE MOON - Mark Reviews Movies

The Moon, Well Go USA

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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 17, 2023

Everything that could go wrong—and a bit more—does in The Moon, a broad piece of sci-fi entertainment that is gradually undone by melodrama and the increasing absurdity of its perilous situation. The "original" story here, written by director Kim Yong-hwa, is basically a combination of a few famous—and better—films about disaster and survival during a space mission. They could be listed here, but that's probably what the movie's marketing department wants. Plus, the connections are so obvious that a list is practically unnecessary.

The story is set in a near future when the South Korean government has decided to make landing astronauts on the moon a top priority (Ironically, the movie itself might work to set back any such prospects by several years, no matter how much patriotism and heroism Kim injects into the material). Five years prior to the country's second attempt at the mission, the first one ended in tragedy, when the rocket meant to carry three astronauts beyond the Earth's atmosphere exploded on takeoff.

After the disaster and some shakeups in the administration of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), a trio of astronauts are again prepared to head to the moon. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, a lot could and does, starting with a massive solar flare that strands the command module and cuts off all communications back to Earth en route to the moon. We meet the three astronauts aboard the craft, with all of them having something to make us emotionally attached to each one in some way, but don't become too attached. A pair of them are mainly here to have some quick back story, float around the ship, and be tossed about and slammed into various parts of the spacecraft. The sequence is harrowing, regardless, mainly because the visual effects provide a sense of realism, sickening momentum, and weight amidst the vacuum of space.

By the end of the opening challenge, two of them are dead and left to float in the void of space, leaving only Hwang Sun-woo (Doh Kyung-soo) alive. That's catastrophic enough, but as it turns out, Hwang is the only member of the team without any training in operating the vessel and with no previous experience in any kind of flight.

Hwang has a back story, too, of course. He's the son of one of the scientists who developed the first rocket for KARI's moon mission—the one that exploded, killing three men and setting back the program by five years. Hwang, then, has a motive to defy every order and all common sense that demands he return to Earth as quickly as possible. Instead, he decides to continue the trip to the moon's orbit and the lunar surface solo for his country and to make up for the failure of his father, who killed himself shortly after the tragedy.

While the craft is still having technical problems, KARI calls upon help from an unlikely source, namely Kim Jae-guk (Sol Kyung-gu), the other scientist who developed the initial vessel, who has gone into self-imposed exile at a remote observatory at the top of a mountain (not remote or high enough, though, that he can't be moved back-and-forth between it and KARI headquarters at a moment's notice, apparently). Kim must work with people who doubt him in order to help Hwang accomplish the mission and return safely to Earth.

Kim's screenplay spends, perhaps, too much time with these two characters as they deal with this personal issues by way of flashbacks, which only serve to show us exactly what the dialogue has already told us, and more intimate conversations that disrupt the momentum of what's otherwise a pretty compelling tale. In case the rather violent departure of those two astronauts at the beginning of the movie isn't enough indication, this is, after all, a story that's less concerned with thoughtfully developed characters and far more intent on giving us peril after peril that must be confronted. The melancholy and guilt-ridden interruptions only highlight how shallow these characters actually are.

However, the movie almost compensates for that with its action, which puts Murphy's law into play in predictable and, often, rather random ways in order to maintain tension. There's Hwang's moon landing, which is suspenseful on its own because we know the astronaut is no expert in this maneuver, but that's not enough. He's also put directly in the path of a meteor shower, that sends him racing toward, while also outracing exploding space rocks, the lunar lander in a setpiece that first lets us know how over-the-top the action here will become.

Again, the effects do a lot of the heavy lifting here, since they're mostly believable—despite how ridiculous much of the action is. When The Moon embraces its spectacle-driven narrative, it's exciting in just how much Kim is willing to put his protagonists through for a thrill or two—from a lunar lander being used in an unlikely way to a freefall sequence that almost excuses how many contrivances the story has to invent to arrive at it. The movie might have been generally fun, except for how seriously it takes itself.

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