This is a very troubling script, or version of script.
Usually with real world film: They become a movie in the editing room, and until then they are a lot of loose intentions centered around a script and the abilities of the hired actors and the editor - but the more CGI the movie is working with, the less material to manipulate in the editing room.
What works:
Speciel effects, the (child) actors, maybe except for the Disney darling, who is more Disney daytime show than snotty Earthling in a feature film (she DOES grow a bit), the Lunar landscape, the employed hardware.
What is not so good: The glass domed habitats on the moon and everything taking place in a meteor shower, give me a break!! (Look to the recent series "Silo" (2023) to get an idea of how to build to protect against the environment). The presentation of character motivations, as if a young audience would be confused by less sobby back-stories and more character action explaining motives.
And then: There are some unresolved points to mention. Some really nasty ones. And this is where the move is spoiled and this review spoils the movie.
yeah, it sounds complicated, but it really is very simple: Dad kill himself, boy go to Earth-TV to see what unspoiled vibrant LIFE really is, Friends go with boy, Car break down, Friends go to midway station...
Argh! There is SO much wrong with this script on SO many levels. The transgression of Dad into life of son. The transgression of authorities abiding by dad's insurance. The transgression of putting Boy on cryo ship, AND while unconscious, despite Boy's prior and clearly stated refusal to go. And the children's un-questioned acceptance of the transgression of the Mining authorities. And the transgression into his abduction trauma of simply handing the 14-year old Boy 70 years of goodbyes from his friends maybe 2 hours later subjective time. AND the children's Disney-given right to trash the symbols of the past in an orgy or destruction, perfectly disregarding any understanding of OR desire for man-made beauty. As a statement to the future - in a kind of grovelling for present day children "YOU are the future - you can do what the hell you want with the past".
I DO apologise for this jumbled review, but really... I cannot be bothered to structure my anger and frustration and loathing of the approval of this edit, and maybe of this script altogether, like I said in the beginning (lots of SFX make it hard to cut a film to deviate relevantly from the script - you can almost only remove scenes and plot lines altogether)
4/10 stars I give to the Lunar backdrop and the actors in general. The missing stars...
Usually with real world film: They become a movie in the editing room, and until then they are a lot of loose intentions centered around a script and the abilities of the hired actors and the editor - but the more CGI the movie is working with, the less material to manipulate in the editing room.
What works:
Speciel effects, the (child) actors, maybe except for the Disney darling, who is more Disney daytime show than snotty Earthling in a feature film (she DOES grow a bit), the Lunar landscape, the employed hardware.
What is not so good: The glass domed habitats on the moon and everything taking place in a meteor shower, give me a break!! (Look to the recent series "Silo" (2023) to get an idea of how to build to protect against the environment). The presentation of character motivations, as if a young audience would be confused by less sobby back-stories and more character action explaining motives.
And then: There are some unresolved points to mention. Some really nasty ones. And this is where the move is spoiled and this review spoils the movie.
- The lead is a young man, who discovers late in the movie that apparently his dad (and only parent) did not die by accident, but killed himself to give his boy a brighter future on a new planet away from the dreary minining colony on the moon
- That the place, which is the driving point for the story - and the kids literally drive across the lunar surface to get there, during a meteor storm, no less (HOW dumb are they, who have only ever known the moon?!) - turns out to be a place with nothing but a (beautiful) 3D projection of Earth similar to what Star Trek uses its Holo Deck for - which would only ever function as a painful reminder to the other children of impossible beauty, when...
- Yeah, and that's the next bad plot point: The young lead, following his father's death and insurance money because of that, is to be placed on a cryo ship to a New habitat, 70 years in deep sleep, to arrive as his own 14-year old self. But Boy does not want to - because he wishes to remain with the only friends he has ever known. But he has no say in the matter - he WILL be placed on the ship and sent away. Which is the reason for the kids' drive through the meteor shower to the famed place - which Boy's father made him promise to visit, before he is sent away, following Father's death...
yeah, it sounds complicated, but it really is very simple: Dad kill himself, boy go to Earth-TV to see what unspoiled vibrant LIFE really is, Friends go with boy, Car break down, Friends go to midway station...
- Midway station turns out to be a "model home" - built to lure early-on settlers to the moon, beautiful 60's/70's decor, and only this one was ever built, Mining company failing their promises. And for this reason Friends thrash the place, no questions asked. No beauty in itself is allowed, and the error of the deceit fully allows this destruction.
- And having seen (at the Moon holo deck) how the Earth and LIFE could be, Friends leave to go back to Mining Colony, as Boy is to be sent off, no questions asked by any of the children, Adults rule!, the other children returning to lead dreary lives with memories of a vibrant LIFE they can never experience. And then Lunar car breaks down, spacesuits shut down one by one, rescuers are approaching and then
- cut to the future, Boy wakes up on new planet. Never got to say goodbye to his friends, unconscious he was cryo-shipped away, and upon awakening he is given 70 years of yearly recordings from his best friend as a consolation meant to dissolve the trauma of his unwanted abduction, the journey he specifically asked to NOT go on, the forced journey, caused by Dad's suicide, and caused by his dad's explicit demand to Son to go see the "last of Earth, so he would understand why Dad was making this sacrifice..."
Argh! There is SO much wrong with this script on SO many levels. The transgression of Dad into life of son. The transgression of authorities abiding by dad's insurance. The transgression of putting Boy on cryo ship, AND while unconscious, despite Boy's prior and clearly stated refusal to go. And the children's un-questioned acceptance of the transgression of the Mining authorities. And the transgression into his abduction trauma of simply handing the 14-year old Boy 70 years of goodbyes from his friends maybe 2 hours later subjective time. AND the children's Disney-given right to trash the symbols of the past in an orgy or destruction, perfectly disregarding any understanding of OR desire for man-made beauty. As a statement to the future - in a kind of grovelling for present day children "YOU are the future - you can do what the hell you want with the past".
I DO apologise for this jumbled review, but really... I cannot be bothered to structure my anger and frustration and loathing of the approval of this edit, and maybe of this script altogether, like I said in the beginning (lots of SFX make it hard to cut a film to deviate relevantly from the script - you can almost only remove scenes and plot lines altogether)
4/10 stars I give to the Lunar backdrop and the actors in general. The missing stars...