Starring Riverdale (and Friends) star Cole Sprouse and Lana Condor, Moonshot is a teen sci-fi rom-com directed by filmmaker Christopher Winterbauer.
Set in 2049, barista Walt (Sprouse) is a nobody who is desperate to go to Mars – so much so, he has submitted 37 applications to be part of a program that sends students to the Red Planet. But due to his lack of expertise and skills, each application has been rejected. One day, he crosses paths with Sophie (Condor), a smart student whose boyfriend Calvin (Mason Gooding) is already on Mars. When she resolves to travel to Mars to be with him, Walt sees this as an opportunity to fulfil his dreams.
As a teen romance, Moonshot mostly suffers from its predictable narrative. Given Walt and Sophie spend so much time together due to them wanting to avoid prosecution, sparks inevitably fly when they encourage each other to break out of their shells – Sophie encourages Walt to be more than a nobody while he motivates her to be more independent. Unfortunately, that’s really it – Winterbauer shapes the film around their budding relationship, so supporting characters such as Calvin and Ginny (Emily Rudd), Walt’s girlfriend/one-night fling, come across as underdeveloped afterthoughts.
The number of seemingly unnecessary characters, including Michelle Bateau’s wasted Captain Tatler and the questionable Leon Kovi (Zach Braff), causes the tone and coherence of the narrative to falter, as a lot of characters have nothing to do. For instance, the film starts by sweeping audiences away with Walt’s romantic and ‘gallant gesture’ only to be brought down to Earth with the bickering between him and Sophie before their friendship takes a turn with all sweetness and smiles during an impromptu party on the spaceship. The story subsequently becomes lost in Moonshot‘s wavering tone, which only gets worse as the film goes on – culminating in hastily tied-up loose ends and a weird turn of events involving Walt and Kovi.
Visually, Moonshot is full of neon lights, clean smart tech, and long-distance relationships that can be maintained via orbs and screens. As pretty as the film is, it is hard to take seriously as a sci-fi film due to the familiarity of certain elements such as robots, rockets and wireless communications – things that have been steadfast in the genre. This lack of originality also extends into Moonshot‘s dialogue and character development – screenwriter Max Taxe tries to incorporate some brains into the characters via Sophie’s ability to fix technology and Calvin’s interest in terraforming. However, this fails to lift the character development past their rom-com tropes of the hapless romantic (Walt), the career-minded partner (Calvin) and the unwavering nerd (Sophie). The only saving grace behind Moonshot is the charming Sprouse and Condor. Both look comfortable and are having fun in their roles, with their endearing chemistry shining through even the most cliché of interactions. Unfortunately, they struggle to keep the film tethered throughout its 104-minute runtime, leaving it lost in its formulaic narrative.
In recent years, teenage romantic-comedies have formed a genre for the modern age. While most of them endear and charm audiences, the lack of originality behind Moonshot causes it to fall short of being memorable.
Moonshot is available on digital download from 25 April 2022.
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Director: Christopher Winterbauer, Max Taxe (screenwriter)
Stars: Cole Sprouse, Lana Condor, Mason Gooding, Michelle Bateau, Emily Rudd, Zach Braff
Runtime: 104 minutes
Country: USA
