The master of disaster is back to ruin the world again with Moonfall, a shamelessly bonkers sci-fi disaster movie where the moon is suddenly on a collision course with earth. A select few suspect aliens are involved. Following a string of disappointments, director Roland Emmerich’s latest is a bit of a return to form, or at least whatever form best suits Emmerich. Moonfall is an uncompromisingly ridiculous disaster epic where the scale is as massive as the plot-holes and the human element is consistently overshadowed by destruction special effects. It’s big, it’s loud, it’s dumb, and by the time the whole thing takes shape, it’s almost too much fun to deny its simple pleasures. Almost.

Let’s be clear – Moonfall is a mess. There’s too many characters, the first act is super janky, the dialogue is consistently contrived, even the plot beats are often shoddily-constructed and poorly-written, aping from Emmerich’s own deck of space mission disaster flicks. And yet, his creation becomes so absolutely bonkers in the third act that the whole vessel nearly orbits back into being stupidly enjoyable. If ever there was a time to toggle off the brain and just vibe, Moonfall has you covered.

Anyone entering the orbit of a Emmerich joint knows to expect one thing: huge planetary-scale destruction. On this front – and arguably on this front alone – Moonfall succeeds. The CGI-heavy visuals can be great – particularly moments involving an Earth with fluctuating gravity – but then the effects are noticeably lacking in places. There are moments where the effects are so ridiculous you can’t help but cheer for the sheer stupidity – take, for instance, a car-full of characters who jumps across exploding chunks of moon rock – while actively acknowledging just how dumb the whole endeavor is.

It begins with a routine satellite repair. In the midst of arguing the lyrics to Toto’s “Africa”, astronauts Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) and Jocinda Fowl (Halle Berry) encounter an anomaly. Their navigator dies. Harper catches the blame for the incident and falls into disrepute. Years later, conspiracist KC Houseman (John Bradley) notices that the moon has fallen out of orbit with the Earth, putting it on a crash course with our planet that would spell certain doom for every single citizen on its surface.

As the military rushes to bomb the moon, Harper and Fowl scramble to figure out what has caused the disruption. Various cities and monuments are leveled by rising tides and chunks of moon debris. Per the disaster movie rulebook, their families are caught without shelter and must survive the onslaught of moon chaos. Their material pads out the movie and gives us a ground-level glimpse of events but their bits are most often obnoxious add-ons.

With a supporting cast that includes Michael Peña, Charlie Plummer, Kelly Reilly, and Chris Sandiford, Moonfall struggles when it comes to character development and dialogue. For a cast this impressive, none make much of an impression. There’s not a single character that doesn’t have a hackneyed backstory, leading to dialogue that’s nothing short of laughably bad. But the plot holes and terrible writing fall away as the threat of the moon looms larger and larger. In the ridiculous third act, things get so absolutely bonkers that you can’t help but just be wowed by the spectacle and boldness of it all. Moonfall does not hold back y’all.

The issue remains that the larger movie is horribly paced (it feels more like three hours than two) and fails to engage until well into the back half, making for a disjointed and ultimately hard-to-recommend disaster that almost nails the over-the-top epic feel it wants…but not quite. Unfortunately, Emmerich’s reach exceeds his grasp as Moonfall leaves us not so much rooting for the characters to survive so much as the moon to wreck as much havoc as lunarly possible. #TeamMoon

CONCLUSION: A chaotic disaster epic marked by an impressive cast, laughable dialogue, and sometimes stellar special effects, ‘Moonfall’ is typical Roland Emmerich fare but lacking the consistent madness to make the whole endeavor a worthwhile expedition.