Frankly, I was intrigued but apprehensive at the prospect of seeing Moon. I generally avoid reading reviews prior to viewing a film on the big screen, but I happened to notice one that highlighted the obvious parallels with that science fiction great, 2001: A Space Odyssey. I fell asleep watching 2001.
The film opens with Sam Bell, a lone technician working on a lunar mining facility that provides cheap energy via nuclear fusion. He's almost at the end of his three-year contract, and you can tell - his hair is long, his beard is unkempt, and he talks to himself (and his robotic helper, Gerty) all the time. He misses his wife and child back on earth and all the time alone has started to make him a little crazy.
It isn't until he has an accident outside his pressurised home while checking a mining vehicle that things start to go truly weird, and I can't say much more without spoiling the plot. Let's just say that the movie explores humans as social creatures, whatever their origin.
The robot helper in this film, Gerty, is much more like a robot from Asimov's ideal world - his three laws have resulted in a robot that truly puts its human charge above itself. Which is far less sinister than Kubrick's HAL 9000!
Ultimately I really enjoyed the film, even though the ending was a little too neat for my liking. I also left two books 'in the wild' at the Cameo cinema on Monday night - if anyone reading this picked up The Third Man Factor (which I thought was particularly relevant since it's about what happens when a person is in extreme duress) or The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, let me know!
