Estação 44: O Refúgio dos Exterminadores

Moon 44 is for sure not a masterpiece but solid and fun space action of the B-movie category: some mercenaries defending a mine somewhere lost in space. Easy to consume pulp science fiction well produced on a small budget. Moon 44 and The Noah's Ark Principle are in my opinion the more interesting and entertaining movies than Mr. Emmerich's last big productions Moonfall or Midway.

This is a stylish looking movie, with moody lighting and atmospheric industrial sets. The space ships are cool - though why the good guys only have helicopters is a puzzle. The characters are likable enough but some are out-of-the-box Hollywood cutouts. The actors are either almost famous, or look hauntingly like people who are - I spent a lot of time wondering if I had seen them before (I hadn't it turns out). The story is OK, however there are a few plot glitches, and at times the story line is a bit thin. There are no real surprises - and no moral ambiguity. The dialogue is OK but once or twice stinks so bad you'll cringe (it may have been an attempt at humour?). At least there are no sudden swerves into the horror genre, and no completely unexplainable plot twists (as in Sunshine for instance).

If you like sci-fi anyway you probably be forgiving enough to enjoy this. I got the DVD for £1 at Tescos so I feel I got my money's worth.

Moon 44 is a bad start for director Roland Emmerich and nobody-actor turned producer Dean Devlin (who later team up with one another to make the blockbusters: Stargate, Independence Day and Godzilla).

The plot of this movie is really weak... It's 2036, and Earth's resources are gone. Mankind is now out in space mining moons somewhere for resources. However, it seems that even the big ol' universe doesn't have enough resources to sustain us greedy, and wasteful humans. The supercorps that run the mining operations have to literally battle each other for the goods.

To defend it's last territory, Moon 44, one company resorts to hire convicts to pilot helicopters (helicopters? on a moon?) yes, helicopters, to protect their mining robots from theft, even though the ships are stolen IN SPACE while their on transit to Earth. Makes a whole lotta sense doesn't it? Since no reputable pilot wants the suicide job of defending the base, the convicts are given the opportunity to do the job for a reduced sentence.

One convict is actually an undercover cop (Michael Paré) and his job is to infiltrate the mining complex and expose a traitor who is reprogramming the robot ships to never make it back to Earth. Because everyone involved is a potential suspect, it makes the cop's job more difficult.

The movie is filled to the brim, with bad acting, lame dialogue, dry characters, cheesy special effects (even for a 1990 film it looked more like something from 1980) and there is even some homoeroticism thrown in for good measure.

Avoid Moon 44 at all cost, and stick to Emmerich's blockbuster hits.

It's 2038. Earth's resources are depleted. Multinational corporations control far off mining operations in the outer zone. Moon 47 is attacked by robot fighters. With an expected attack on Moon 44, Galactic Mining sends in young tech nerd navigators to guide helicopter pilots. With no one for the dangerous piloting jobs, the company recruits willing prisoners. There is an issue with the situation and internal affairs is needed. The company offers the job to Felix Stone (Michael Paré) in exchange for cancelling his contract.

This is early B-movie Roland Emmerich. I remember watching some of this back in the day. It's got good miniatures but the action is limited filmmaking. Limited is the catch phrase for most of this movie. While I remember the conflict between navigators and pilots, the secret sabotage is forgettable. More than anything, the acting is B-level led by Michael Paré. They are perfectly fine for this solid B-movie. Perfectly fine B-movie defines everything aspect of this movie.

Moon 44 is one of those little sci-fi films which really slipped through the cracks during the 1980s and early 90s. Sadly, these types of tales are nothing more than straight to video fodder with absolutely horrid acting, so this represents one of the last of the cool, dark sci-fi films. I was rather mesmerized the first time I watched this in 1992, and I thought it was better the second time around. This ranks as one of those dark films among the likes of Outland and Silent Running. Good show if I had seen any.