Fly Me to the Moon

Fly Me to the Moon Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Ray Romano, Jim Rash, Anna Garcia, and Woody Harrelson

Director: Greg Berlanti

What’s Good: Johansson and Tatum might not have the best chemistry together, but they are nevertheless charming, and the inspiring tale of reaching the impossible makes for a solid feel good movie.

What’s Bad: The movie is just too long, spending too much time on weird tangents that only make the movie feel more scattered than it should.

Loo Break: The start of the third act feels quite slow, so it might be the perfect moment to take a loo break.

Watch or Not?: For sure, if you are a fan of space, Johansson, or Tatum, then this is a must, and overall it is a good vibe movie, which we all need.

Language: English (with subtitles).

Available On: Theaters

Runtime: 132 Minutes

User Rating:

Space is the ultimate frontier, and the NASA Space Program might be the most talked about space project in memory, thanks to the USA’s ability to sell their accomplishments to the rest of the world, and with good reason, because, seeing Fly Me to the Moon makes it clear that the universal feeling of exploring and discovering new things is something that might unite us all in the future, as the destiny of humanity lies in the stars, a frontier that we cannot reach alone but only by working together.

Fly Me to the Moon Movie Review: Script Analysis

Fly Me to the Moon is directed by Greg Berlanti, once the ruler of CW’s DC Universe and now a writer, director and producer who keeps being just as prolific as always but definitely outside the superhero space. Berlanti definitely has a style that permeates Fly Me to the Moon as well, and this brings with it a number of things that are both good and bad; all of them also reflected in the script, written by Rose Gilroy, who I suspect definitely belongs to the Gilroy family.

Fly Me to the Moon’s script is charming and contains some very entertaining scenes where we see the characters enjoying what they do, or to the contrary, feeling shameful for their decisions. It is a classic drama, and so, the script goes back and forth among a multitude of feelings. However, as the film expands, it becomes less and less focused and at times it feels like the story is going in tangents as to not reach its logical endings, adding a third act that feels very much undercooked.

As the movie comes to an end, the story fractures into scenes dedicated to examine parts of the story that don’t feel as important as to do that, and the result are scenes that feel like filler, and slows the pacing quite a lot. Thus, the last third of the film just feels boring, and it definitely feels like the movie should already be over. This might have been a conscious decision to avoid the classic climatic ending, but that kind of ending works for a reason, while this one feels deflated.

The dialogue is simple, but Johansson manages to make it sharp in every single scene she is in, something the rest of the actors are not able to do, and so, we can see clearly how much an actor can elevate a line of dialogue just by being them. The film definitely needed a tighter edit, or in a best case scenario, the script needed to be more polished right from the start.

Fly Me to the Moon Movie Review: Star Performance

Fly Me to the Moon does have a TV Movie quality that it is hard to deny, and it makes sense as Berlanti has never been cinematic in his directorial efforts, and the way the movie is cast also feels like it could have been a miniseries of sorts. Johansson, Tatum, Romano and Harrelson are big names for sure, but the rest of the actors around him feel all very new and inexperienced, and this is not a bad thing at all, but it definitely colors the perception of the audience with regard to what they can expect from the film.

Johansson is definitely the star of the movie as she is not only beautiful, but sharp, and charming, everything a movie star needs to keep our eyes on her. She steals every single one of the scenes she is in, which makes the rest of the cast feel quite underwhelming, especially Tatum, who delivers a performance that is walking the line between overacted and unintentionally funny.