To start off this review, let me put forth an unpopular opinion; “Moonfall” isn’t really a disaster movie. It’s much more of an action movie, complete with an action packed climax that involves a massive sacrifice. And as is typical with action movies, it’s an extremely fast paced movie, which slightly hurts the film overall.

“Moonfall” is full of clever ideas and fascinating concepts. The very concept of a falling moon is intriguing enough, and it’s made even better with the pure pulp of an alien conspiracy that goes back to the dawn of humanity. Sure, it’s cheesy, but it’s this exact wildness that made me fall in love with sci-fi as a genre. 

The problem is, the breakneck pace doesn’t quite allow us to dwell on much of it. In particular, the disaster gets plenty of scenes to show the destruction later on, but we don’t really get to see it escalate in the beginning. As such, we don’t quite get a full sense of the stakes until later on. This in turn makes the third act escalation seem much less impactful, which is a shame, given that it escalates pretty well by then.

A similar problem exists with the characters. There are a lot of characters in this movie, many of which are introduced quickly. In particular, main character Brian Harper’s son Sonny Harper (Charlie Plummer), which sadly doesn’t get enough time to be developed in his earlier scenes, making his arc with his father much less impactful then it could’ve been. It also makes it harder to truly feel for the characters as a couple die and struggle, because we don’t quite know them as well as we should. It also hurts the later half because it ends up having to play catch-up and give us a reason to care for the characters. Granted, it does manage to do so decently well, but it’s hard to truly get emotional about Tom Lopez (Michael Peña) and Sonny reconciling, which hasn’t had the chance to truly develop.

Not all is lost, however. The main trio of astronauts Brian (Patrick Wilson) and Jo (Halle Berry), plus lovable conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman (John Bradley), are decently well developed. In particular, K.C., who steals the show in many of his scenes, and ends up being one of the most memorable parts of the movie. The effects are also gorgeous, and rest assured, the destruction in this movie is an extremely well done spectacle, and will keep you at the edge of your seat. It’s not a bad movie in the end, truly. I had fun with it. However, like the moon, it’s sadly a bit more hollow than it should be.