Roland Emmerich co-wrote, directed, and produced ‘Moonfall,’ a science fiction disaster flick released by Lionsgate. It was a co-production by the Chinese film company Tencent Pictures and the European cinema group Centropolis Entertainment.

In 2011, astronauts Brian Harper (Halle Berry), Jocinda Fowler (Patrick Wilson), and rookie Marcus (Frank Fiola) are repairing a space station when they are attacked by a strange cloud. Jocinda is knocked out and Brian is blamed for the incident. This causes a months-long investigation where Brian is ridiculed and when Jocinda does not defend him, he is fired from NASA. Ten years later, Brian is divorced and his ex-wife Brenda (Carolina Bartczak) is remarried to Tom (Michael Peña). Brian’s son Sonny (Charlie Plummer) is arrested for a traffic incident and sent to jail pending a trial.

K.C. Houseman (John Bradley), who believes the Moon is an artificial megastructure, figures out that the moon’s orbit is decreasing, but no one will listen to him, so he leaks the study onto the internet. When NASA confirms this, they also discover the mysterious cloud attacks an attempt to correct it. Jocinda is named NASA Acting Director and works with her ex-husband Air Force General Doug Davidson (Eme Ikwuakor) to solve the problem. After Brian and K.C. connect, they are tapped by Jocinda to fly to the moon to stop the mysterious cloud. Sonny, Jocinda’s son Jimmy (Zayn Maloney), and friend Michelle (Kelly Yu) have to get to safety as the moon collapses.

Roland Emmerich is known for several disaster films, environmental propaganda, historical dramas, and sci-fi epics. He has had a lot of hits and some stinkers, but he has never intentionally made a comedy. This time, he may have done it by accident.

If it had not been for the actors trying to be serious throughout the film, I honestly would have thought it was a comedy, a bad one. Since it was supposed to be serious, it somehow made it enjoyable. I laughed at the zany circumstances, the idiotic character arcs, and the lame dialogue.

One of the most bizarre things to happen is they let K.C., a fry cook with no space travel experience just board the mission to the moon. He has had no training or survival experience, and his only confirmed flight time has been on a helicopter ride from California to Texas. Yet, he somehow can handle the G-force of a rocket. Granted, the moon’s orbit was closer, so the ride was not as long, but real astronauts go through intensive training for over a decade to ensure they are ready for space flight. I audibly laughed when they said he was going.

Another thing is, Brian claims Jacinda did not stick up for him when he was being questioned about the first incident in the film. He accused her of backstabbing when, in fact, she was knocked unconscious and did not even witness the event. She could not defend him if she wanted to, but his accusations go nuts.

The film also tries to make the death scenes emotional, but again, they come off as hilarious. For instance, somehow oxygen gets removed from the atmosphere as the moon descends, so a character dies. Five seconds later, the oxygen is back. Again, I laughed out loud.

I genuinely feel bad for the actors. They lumbered along trying to make the movie watchable and they succeeded somewhat in the sense it will develop a cult following the way Troll 2 has.

Bottom line, if you want to watch a movie where the characters make the dumbest decisions and utter the stupidest dialogue, Moonfall is the film for you. It is so bad it’s good.

PARENTAL CONCERNS: Frightening situations, Violence, Foul language

FAVORITE QUOTE: One madness coming up.

Check out the trailer below:

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