Moonbase

n°1 - 8/10 Vin Gilio

December 20, 2011  Spoiler

While by no means is MOONBASE a big, budget fx spectacle, the film does what sci-fi does best: it tells a story about the human condition before an other-worldly backdrop. Simply put, we meet a man who has retreated from the world (quite literally) to protect the one he loves. Taking a job at a garbage dump on the far side of the moon, he is discarded by society as well. But when a small band of criminals escapes from an orbiting penitentiary and invades his isolated sanctuary, he has to decide whether to retreat further into his self-imposed exile, or step forward and take a stand, whatever the cost. Ultimately, he decides that heroic self-sacrifice is the only path to redemption, and in risking everything, he regains everything he had lost. If this production had commanded a larger budget (for more convincing special fx or for some marquee actors) I suspect we would have heard more about this rough, little gem of a space western. The story, direction and photography are better than average B-movie fare, but lack the support of those elements that audiences have come to expect from science fiction these days.