Moving from the Sun to the Moon, here is another great serious Sci Fi movie. This is what you call "soft" science fiction, I guess, one of the movies that is more about ideas than it is about future technology or spaceships. SPOILER ALERT: there is a twist and pretty common one at that, revealed and then dealt with in a casual and unconventional manner. The movie is full of sci fi tropes, but subverts them left and right, especially with the robot character. Refreshing.
Sam Rockwell is great. He has a lot of charisma, charm and chemistry with the cast. His laid back demeanor is a comfortable alternative to the take-charge assertive protagonists often seen in Star Trek and other more operatic space adventures.
The special effects are kind of strange strange because they often look like scale models or toys bouncing around on a model of the moon, but they still look good. Maybe I'm remembering things incorrectly, but these shots look like they were recorded from a satillite orbiting the moon or a with a high-quality moon security camera, a great move to make (if it was made at all) considering the anti-corporate tilt the movie has.
Cost/Benefit Analysis: I actually paid to see this one in the theater. Totally worth it, and I dragged two friends along to give more money to serious science fiction.
