All of the tropes are in order starting with a disgraced astronaut (Patrick Wilson) wrongfully blamed for a co-worker’s death who is unable to confront this dark moment from his past. Mother Earth is next placed on a collision course with another planet, in this case the moon hurtling out of orbit. There’s even perfunctory comic relief insufferably personified by mama's boy/nerd immemorial, John Bradley aka the love child of Ricky Gervais and James Corden. Writer-director Roland Emmerich is no stranger to disaster films (Independence Day[s], The Day After Tomorrow) which explains his frequent reliance on thought-free Irwin Allen-esque cheats to keep things moving. You know, like planting a key piece of information on a newspaper found at the bottom of a litter box. While on the subject of kitty privvies, Wilson deserves a better agent while Halle Berry doesn’t deserve the career she’s had since trading in her Oscar® for a little box. The torrential cloudburst of moon debris that caps the piece might have worked better in 3D, but as is, it’s as flat as everything else in this artificial universe. (2022) — Scott Marks
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