Above: Moon Below: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Monday, April 29, 2013
Q4: Moon and Friends
Although I missed the beginning of Moon the moment I came in I thought 2001: A Space Odyssey. The predominantly white interior shots and the plot point where one guy has to go save the other were two points that really connected the two movies for me.
And then add the fact that there's a computer that controls everything in the station just added to the Space Odyssey-ness. However Moon differs because rather than stick to the mission, GERTY's mission is to help Sam, or the Sams with whatever they need. There were points in the film where I felt the movie was just a joke and I'm not sure if they were supposed to be funny with GERTY's facial emoticons, because they just seemed out of place in the futuristic space base, even HAL seemed more futuristic. However HAL was omnipresent while GERTY was a singular unit that had to physically move around the base. Another element of Moon I saw borrowed from another film was Brazil's bureaucracy/totalitarian element. The Lunar company that Sam works for is basically Central Services but with a single worker that they keep refreshing every few years. Lunar keeps Sam in the dark about the communications and the clones just as Central Services hides much of their inner workings from everyone but those who have to manage them. All in all I really enjoyed Moon both for its twist in what I expected thinking it was a 2001 knockoff and for the elements that did carry over and what Jones did with them.
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Glad you liked it! I agree GERTY was much funnier than HAL, at least at first. I mean, "GERTY"? Even the name is funny. Did you notice who the voice was done by?
ReplyDeleteI think that we both took a lot of the same things out of Moon and the other sic-fi films we watched throughout the unit. I agree that GERTY and Hal differ in their objective towards the main character, but I disagree with you that GERTY is meant to be a joke. I think that GERTY's facial "expressions" are meant to be ironic because he obviously cannot express his emotions except for the telling emoticon, and yet he is an entirely human character that has clear emotions. The character of GERTY really stresses the question of what makes us human and forces the audience to think about it rather than laugh at his expressions.
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