A Trip to the Moon (2011)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Instant Favorite.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is an absolute masterpiece. The effects are phenomenal, back then and still now. The effects were mostly good because George's Meiles himself was a magician so he had a clear vision and knew exactly what to do. Today, it would have all been done by CGI and it would look like crap. This film is timeless, that's why I love.The Story is about a group of scientists who travel to the moon to go on an adventure. They battle aliens, and then they escape the eart triumph.That's pretty much it, but what do you expect from a short film. But it keeps you interested all the time. This a treat for anyone with a good taste of cinema. So, if you're sick of all the summer blockbusters, watch this. Masterpiece.

Georges Méliès was a revolutionary in film, and "A Trip to the Moon" is the quintessential example of his pioneering work. Unlike many films in this time period, this project has a story centered on a specific set of characters, complete with introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Essentially, what we find in "A Trip to the Moon", lays out a number of elements that we see today in modern films that lie on the more realist elements of the spectrum. You could say that this influenced later films to follow similar story patterns, but, of course, that is not at all what Méliès is truly remembered for. He is remembered most for special effects work. For instance, Georges Méliès uses cuts several times throughout this short film; he cuts from the cannon shot to the moon, he cuts from the moon to the ocean, he cuts from the ocean to the streets of a city, etc. All of these cuts were incredible special effects for the time, and they allow the story to flow fluidly and seamlessly. It showed other filmmakers what they could do to help the audience abstractly connection several frames that would, without context, appear to be unconnected. Nowadays, edits like this are so commonplace that we do not even take the time to think about them, and we have Mr. Georges Méliès to thank for that. As far as special effects work goes, we also can witness George Méliès zooming the camera in on the moon while simultaneously cutting to a different image, one of the moon with a man's face in it, paving the way for other filmmakers to use other insane special effects in later years. Additionally, Méliès makes good use of Mise en scène throughout this short film. For example, he uses the concept excellently in the scene with the cannon; the base of the cannon is positioned in the bottom left corner of the frame while the rest of the cannon naturally leads the eye to the moon, as the cannon is pointed directly at the moon. In this case, I would consider the cannon to be the dominant, and because the cannon is essentially a line, our eyes are naturally led to what lies on the ends of the line, which is the moon in this case because the other side leads to the end of the frame. Color palette is another classic attribute of a given frame composition, but Méliès did not have much to work with here because films at the time were exclusively in shades of black and white. However, there are still plenty of similar attributes that he could and did manipulate in "A Trip to the Moon". Take patterns, for instance; Georges Méliès dressed the aliens that inhabited the moon in strange, striped outfits to distinguish them from the relatively plainly dressed people from Earth. This choice of wardrobe establishes several important and useful effects: it becomes very easy for the audience to distinguish the aliens from the main characters we have been following up to this point, and it makes the aliens feel strange, distinct, and, well, alien. It allows the audience to sympathize how the main cast of characters would be feeling about the aliens in that situation. Additionally, all of what has been said of these color patterns can apply to the structure the aliens appear to inhabit, along with the other oddly dressed aliens with flowers for heads on the left side of the frame during the alien encounter. Overall, Georges Méliès short film, "A Trip to the Moon", was a film that sticks with us today because it was far ahead of its time. In an era where short films about people leaving work at a factory and clips about a train leaving the station were considered new and exciting, Georges Méliès brought to life a film with special effects, compositions, and story structures that can all be found in realist films today. That is why we do, and always will, remember Georges Méliès and "A Trip to the Moon".

I love his films.Just love.So,my review's of his films will be same,Pardon me for my laziness and repetition,but I can't something new,because his films are the same in fact,each his film is the great magic presentation(no story,just illusion) and you must watch all of them in one breath. He made a huge impact on world culture.here is quote from Wikipedia: "Walt Disney, on being presented with the Legion of Honour in 1936, expressed gratitude to Méliès and his fellow pioneer Émile Cohl, saying they "discovered the means of placing poetry within the reach of the man in the street."Terry Gilliam has called Méliès "the first great film magician," adding: "His joyous sense of fun and ability to astound were a big influence on both my early animations and then my live- action films… Of course, Méliès still has a tight creative grip on me." The 2007 novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and 2011 film Hugo based on it, center on the later life of Méliès, who is played by Ben Kingsley in the film.Méliès was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2015.

While 'A Trip to the Moon' stands as a classic, remembered after over a hundred years, it is clearly dated. Having a short run-time and the technology of the time, there is not much to be expected. Much of what happens is unclear and can be confusing due to the silent film and poor quality of its survival. But when watching this, you seem to forget the limitations, and possibly respect what they made with what they had.