Another mystery of our satellite Not every fantastic thriller becomes a real classic of the genre. In theory, only a small proportion of them, filmed in the 70-80s of the last century, passed the test of time and became a real treasure of art. First of all, Ridley Scott’s Alien comes to mind, as well as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. After reviewing all the main pictures of the past on the topic of aliens and space exploration, I decided to dig a little deeper and found a considerable amount of such genre films, which in our time remained completely unknown. From this mass, I singled out for myself a painting by Robert Dyke called "Trap on the Moon" in 1989. In addition to the story about the mysteries of the moon, I was interested in participating in this film by Bruce Campbell, who remained in the memory of the folk trilogy Evil Dead to this day. And even though his career did not shine in the future, it is still nice to meet Bruce in small roles in every new blockbuster Sam Raimi! I was also interested in the information on the poster, which appeared in the main stars of the project a certain Walter Koenig, who turned out to be one of the leading actors of the famous classic Star Trek, which I nevertheless do not respect at all, but the actors in other projects, in addition to the space series, are ready to accept without bias. Despite the fact that the picture was shot at a not too famous studio, and the director is a person who subsequently did not gain world fame, I still decided to watch. And although this film did not please me, but it is difficult to call it a failure, like some craft in the style of “Dead Space”.
The plot itself is such: two good old partners, NASA shuttle pilots, Jason Grant (Koenig) and Ray Tanner (Campbell), go on their next flight within the Earth and the Moon. Already I have done this route more than once, the heroes did not expect anything special from the new task, but at a certain point on their radar was a huge abandoned spacecraft. having decided to take a closer look at the object, the heroes find a dried human body and a small brown container, remotely similar to a dinosaur egg in a pierced captain's cabin. Taking on board both the container and the body, the heroes deliver them to a military base, and what was their surprise that the container turned out to be the receptacle of an extraterrestrial mechanical creature, which, having escaped to freedom, arranges a real massacre, along the way modifying. Such images of the main characters will have to investigate the mystery of the origin of the monster and discover all the secrets that our moon holds directly to prevent a real catastrophe.
In contrast to the mass of low-budget and primitive fantasy fighters of those years, "Trap on the Moon" carries intrigue and interest in its mysteries. As many of the viewers argue, Dyke’s picture can be a kind of prototype of a more perfect and modern “Virus” with Jamie Lee Curtis, which also tells about space mechanisms-killers. And looking at the old picture, you understand where the filmmakers of the new generation drew inspiration from. However, I want to note the qualitative leap that cinema has made. Between the premieres of the films “Trap on the Moon” and “Virus” passed only 9 years, but the results are radically different from each other. And the comparison is still not in favor of the first film, both technically and artistically. You can immediately see that the picture of 1989 has a rather small budget and even released 10 years earlier “Alien” looks a hundred times more spectacular. A huge amount of empty dialogue, modest scale of scenery and poorly developed infrastructure of the society of the future, which is also the result of small cash injections. The historical discovery of astronauts is discussed only by a handful of inexpressive personalities who impersonate the top leadership, the shootouts are prolonged to the maximum and not spectacular at all. The most interesting thing in this picture begins only closer to the finale, which, if you do not take into account the beginning of the picture, the only bright spot in the plot. But the leading actors cannot but rejoice, especially Bruce Campbell, who tries to dilute the seriousness of the production with a couple of jokes and corporate irony.
In the end, I want to say that the film is clearly outdated, but not completely lost its value, so for interest and nostalgia, you can definitely watch it once. The main value of the picture in our time is the plot, which was later developed to new heights by other filmmakers. All the rest is timekeeping, drawn up with unnecessary scenes and dialogues, as well as funny action. Pure nostalgia for thirsty.
4 out of 10