When Halle Berry agreed to star in the apocalyptic thriller Moonfall, she would not have anticipated just how poorly the film would perform in a commercial sense. After all, the project was under the guidance of Roland Emmerich, known for his success with other doomsday movies like Independence Day, White House Down and The Day After Tomorrow.
At the same time, the Monster’s Ball actress would be joining a cast line-up that also included stars like Charlie Plummer, Michael Peña, Patrick Wilson and Game of Thrones’ John Bradley.
Instead of following in the footsteps of all those other films, however, Moonfall ended up becoming one of the worst box office bombs ever. From a budget of nearly $150 million, the movie only managed to gross around $59 million. Without adjusting for inflation, only 11 other motion pictures have made bigger losses in theatrical returns in history.
One of the few elements of the film that has been somewhat immune from evisceration by critics is Berry’s own performance. Despite this poor, original reception of Moonfall, there appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel, with the film performing really well in streaming numbers recently.
What Is The Premise Of Moonfall?
The plot summary for Moonfall on Rotten Tomatoes reads: “In Moonfall, a mysterious force knocks the Moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know it. With mere weeks before impact and the world on the brink of annihilation, NASA executive and former astronaut Jo Fowler is convinced she has the key to saving us all – but only one astronaut from her past, Brian Harper and a conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman believe her.”
“These unlikely heroes will mount an impossible last-ditch mission into space, leaving behind everyone they love, only to find out that our Moon is not what we think it is,” the synopsis concludes.
Halle Berry portrayed the NASA executive Jo Fowler, with Patrick Wilson and John Bradley playing her colleagues, Brian Harper and K.C. Houseman respectively. Charlie Plummer is featured as Brian’s son, Sonny.
As well as Michael Peña, the cast of Moonfall also included Chinese-Canadian singer and actress Kelly Yu, The Hunger Games’ Donald Sutherland, and MCU star Eme Ikwuakor.
What Did Critic Reviews Say About Moonfall?
Although there are a few critics who still found positives in Moonfall, the overwhelming majority returned very damning reviews of the film. Mark Kermode of Kermode and Mayo’s Review targeted the writing, saying: “It's like someone went, ‘Alexa write a really, really bad science fiction script.”
“Moonfall is bad – the wrong kind of bad – because everything in this formula fails to hold up its end of the bargain. The effects are muddled; the supporting cast is terrible,” Matthew Monagle of Austin Chronicle said.
BBC’s James Luxford concurred, as he wrote: “The plot makes very little sense, the dialogue is awful, the twists are hilarious when they shouldn't be. It might be one of those films [that are] so bad [that they are] good for some people. For me, it’s just bad.”
The list of negative reviews for the movie appear endless, with various critics referring to it as “bananas” and “nuts,” “boring and repetitive,” and even “soulless and empty.”
One of the few positive reviews said: “If you judge Moonfall as another catastrophe movie then it may even be boring, but the science fiction concept makes it more interesting than it might seem at first.”
Moonfall Has Been One Of The Most Streamed Movies On Hulu Recently
Moonfall might have struggled to attract enough viewership to simply break even at the box office, but it appears to be a completely different story when it comes to streaming. The movie was made available on Hulu, and in the last week, has become one of the top films watched on the platform.
To provide context, the Roland Emmerich film was gunning for top spot on Hulu alongside the likes of Elvis, Prey, Tammy, and even Spider-Man: No Way Home. This is according to Flix Patrol’s most recent Top 10 list.
The creators of Moonfall can take heart from this recent shift, as well as the fact that a poor box office performance is not always conclusive proof of a bad movie. Pictures like Fight Club, The Big Lebowski and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory flopped during their cinema runs, but went on to become cult classics. While that might not be the eventual fate of Moonfall, at least things are not looking as grim anymore.
