Moonfall (2022) is the kind of disaster movie that delivers exactly what its title promises, wild, world-ending calamity with the Moon literally threatening to crash into Earth, but little else with staying power.
The visuals are undeniably grand, from tidal waves engulfing cities to fragments of lunar rock raining down in fiery showers, and the premise leans into the outrageous with conspiratorial twists about the Moon’s true nature. Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, and John Bradley give earnest performances, trying to ground the spectacle with family drama and flashes of humor, but the characters feel thin, their arcs predictable, and their dialogue often clunky.
The science is laughably implausible, sometimes to the point of self-parody, which makes the film fun only if you’re willing to shut off logic entirely and embrace it as a campy, guilty-pleasure disaster flick. Ultimately, Moonfall is entertaining in bursts of spectacle and chaos, but hollow in narrative and emotion, an over-budgeted B-movie that shines brightest when it stops trying to be profound and just lets the Moon fall.
Memorable Quotes from Moonfall (2022)
KC Houseman: “That might be the greatest sentence anyone’s ever said.”
Holdenfield: “This planet has suffered five extinctions. This is going to be the sixth.”
Elaine Houseman: “You’re part of the Moon now.”
Brian Harper: “Save the Moon, save Earth.”
Ziggy: “How do you think the Incas got their potatoes?”
Ziggy: “Word is, um, you’re an astronaut, so you must know that the entire inside of the Moon is full of produce.”
