Moon (2009) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Science Fiction |
Audio Commentary-with Duncan Jones, Gary Shaw, Gavin Rothery & Tony Noble Audio Commentary-with Director Duncan Jones and Producer Stuart Fenegan Short Film-"Whistle" - a short film by Duncan Jones Featurette-Making Of-The Making of Moon Featurette-Creating the Visual Effects Featurette-Science Center Q&A with Director Duncan Jones Featurette-Filmmaker's Q&A at the Sundance Film Festival Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Bluray demo,Terminator Salvation,Angels&Demons,Impact, 2012 |
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Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 2009 | ||
Running Time | 93:15 | ||
RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (83:23) | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 2,4,5 | Directed By | Duncan Jones |
Studio
Distributor |
Sony Pictures Home Entertain |
Starring |
Sam Rockwell Kevin Spacey Dominique McElligott Rosie Shaw Adrienne Shaw Kaya Scodelario Malcolm Stewart Robin Chalk |
Case | Amaray-Opaque-Secure Clip | ||
RPI | $34.95 | Music | Clint Mansell |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Unknown |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Catalan Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
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Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.40:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
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Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 2.40:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles |
English English for the Hearing Impaired English Audio Commentary English Audio Commentary Spanish Spanish Audio Commentary Spanish Audio Commentary Hindi Catalan |
Smoking | No |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
Three years in solitude can send any man crazy, especially when you are up on the moon, working for a mining company mining helium-3, a rare resource on Earth, but more abundant on the moon, and a viable source of clean energy. Sam Rockwell plays Sam Bell, the lone inhabitant of the Sarang lunar base, owned by the Mining company, Lunar Industries. At the beginning of the film we find Sam two weeks away from the end of his 3-year contract, and he is exuberant about the prospect of being re-united with his wife Tess and his baby daughter Eve. We only get to see Sam's family via recorded video messages as the lunar base has a problem with live communications. This is the first clue in the film that everything is not quite right in the situation we are presented with.
Sam starts to hallucinate, firstly seeing a teenage girl and then seeing himself on monitors on the base. While going to retrieve some ready-made helium-3 canisters from one of the four harvesters used to mine helium-3, Sam sees the teenage girl again. He crashes the lunar rover due to this distraction, passing out just after activating his life support unit. He wakes up in the infirmary to the voice of his only other companion, the computer GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey) to be told that a rescue team is coming and his work on the base is finished, the company has issued strict orders that Sam is to be confined to the Sarang lunar base. Sam, being impulsive and tempered, cannot accept this course of events, so he conspires to create a gas leak on the station, whereby GERTY is forced to let him investigate. He finds the crashed lunar rover, and then he is shocked to find a survivor, himself, or a man that looks like himself. At this point of the film the audience is left to work out what is going on, and the wonderful thing about the screenplay, adapted by Nathan Parker from Duncan Jones' original story, is that we only begin to find out the truth as the main characters of the film find it out.
The amazing thing about Moon is the acting of Sam Rockwell to pull off playing two characters, and the ingenuity of the production team to create a realistic science-fiction film on such a low budget of £2.5 million. This was done using lighting, perspective and models and it's interesting to know that Duncan Jones' directing background involves working with visual effects. There was also the need to utilise CGI effects for Sam Rockwell's scenes where he plays both characters of Sam Bell sharing dialogue. These were effective in that the action scenes where the two Sams fight and play table tennis against each other for example look seamless. Clint Mansell's bare piano-themed soundtrack helps to evoke the aura of isolation in space and the use of classical music for scenes showing long shots of the moon's atmosphere and of space remind the viewer of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
There are other references to other science-fiction films in Moon, such as Alien, Outland and Silent Running. For me, the strongest references are to 2001: A Space Odyssey and the haunting themes of Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris and the struggle for survival in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. This is a very strong directorial debut by Duncan Jones, the son of musician David Bowie, and as a result of its success, Jones has been commissioned to direct Source Code, coming out in 2011, and Mute, a film set in Berlin where Sam Rockwell will reprise his role of Sam Bell.
The film has been stacked with extras which are all presented on one disc. Thankfully Sony has produced a single DVD-9 dual layered disc which is 7.95gb in size, allowing good space for the main presentation and the extras.
The aspect ratio of Moon is 2:40:1, 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions.
The main feature is 93 minutes in length. It takes up a little bit over one side of the dual-layered disc. The average bitrate is 5.59 mb/sec which is better than it sounds because the movie has many dark contrasts and use of blacks which bring the average bitrate down. There is some mosquito noise in the opening credits and some slight grain in the transfer, although the main transfer does not have compression issues to the point of displaying macro-blocking effects in dark scenes.
Colour is somewhat monochromatic as all the action is on the moon, and the dominant colours are grey, white and black. There are deliberate uses of flared lights to distinguish action in some scenes. This was done to compensate for the films bland colour scheme.
There are no discernible film artefacts.
Subtitles are provided in English, Spanish and Hindi. The two audio commentaries are also subtitled in English and Spanish. You can also choose Catalan subtitles 'on-the-fly', these were not available as an option from the menu.
RSDL change occurs at 83:23 during a scene change.
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The soundtrack to Moon, done by Clint Mansell, is similar to Mansell's previous score for The Wrestler, subtle, yet immersive when required.
The main soundtrack in English is a Dolby Digital 5.1 track encoded at 448 kbps. There are two tracks in Spanish and Catalan which are Dolby Digital 5.1 encoded at 384 kbps. The two audio commentaries are Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded, encoded at 192 kbps.
The dialogue is clear and audio is synchronised.
The music score was done well on a low budget. It evokes the aural atmosphere of the moon setting on which the film is based.
Surround channel usage is also subtle and infrequent.
The subwoofer is used to emphasise scenes such as the lunar rover crash. It is not used to over-emphasise bass sounds and in fact it is not needed often. The audio production of the film was really well done to create a eerie yet melancholic mood.
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NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 1 United States release of Moon includes all the extras found on the Region 4 release except the short film, Whistle. The Region 2 United Kingdom release is identical to the Region 4 version. The Region 2 Scandinavian release has the wrong aspect ratio of 1:78:1 and no extras at all! The Region 4 release from Sony is therefore the best release for Region 4 consumers.
Moon is a quality independent debut for writer and director, Duncan Jones. You will not be disappointed by this homage to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sony, who produced the DVD, must also be credited for their inclusion of many quality extras on this disc, making Moon a good purchase for DVD consumers. Sam Rockwell's acting performance must also be mentioned because he carries the whole film. He is in every scene and his acting will leave you gripped right up to the final scene. Moon, therefore, is an obvious recommendation for your DVD library.
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Review Equipment | |
DVD | Sony BDP-S550 (Firmware updated Version 020), using HDMI output |
Display | Samsung LA46A650 46 Inch LCD TV Series 6 FullHD 1080P 100Hz. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Sony STR-K1000P. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. |
Amplification | Sony HTDDW1000 |
Speakers | Sony 6.2 Surround (Left, Front, Right, Surround Left, Surround Back, Surround Right, 2 subwoofers) |