| "Justice for the World" films | |||||||
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| “ | Revenge will be theirs | „ |
— Tagline |
Blood Moon: Justice for the World (also known as Blood Moon) is a 2030 science fiction disaster film, co-written, directed and produced by Roland Emmerich. It is the second film installment in the Justice for the World film series, and a sequel to Justice for the End of the World. The film stars Maika Monroe, Ray Fisher, Alessandra de Rossi, Patrick Wilson, Bill Pullman, Djimon Hounsou and Cody Walker. In the film, the aliens use the moon as a vessel to eradicate the last remnants of humanity, and humanity has to stop the incoming doom using their remaining resources.
After the massive commercial success of the film, Legendary Pictures and TSG Entertainment brought back Emmerich to write and direct a sequel in May 2027, in hopes of launching a Hollywood-reimagined cinematic universe. At the same time, it was confirmed that Harald Kloser would come back to write, produce and compose the music for the film, with James Vanderbilt replacing Laeta Kalogridis, as screenwriter, after she dropped out of pre-production. In September 2028, it was confirmed that Vanderbilt would produce the film, alongside newcomer Mark Gordon. Principal photography began in March 2029, and wrapped in June 2029. Additional scenes were added in February 2030. The film had a budget of $205-211 million.
Blood Moon: Justice for the World was theatrically released on September 13, 2030, to negative reviews, whom most agreed that the first film was better, and criticized the screenplay, runtime, characters and story, although the visual effects and technical work were praised. Despite this, it was a success at the box office, grossing $506.4 million, becoming the tenth-highest grossing film of 2030. It was nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 103rd Academy Awards. It was nominated for 5 awards at the 51st Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture, winning Worst Director for Emmerich, Worst Screenplay and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel. A sequel, titled War for Justice Across Worlds, was released on October 31, 2033.
Plot[]
In 1971, a hidden figure fights off aliens on Kepler 22-b, and after several won battles, he wins a war that had been raging for a year. The inhabitants of the planet praise him and began to worship him.
Three years after the battle for Earth, after humanity has rebuilt itself enough to sustain the surviving population of 700 million, conspiracy theorist Brian Harris, who believes that the Moon is housing aliens in its infrastructure, secretly uses a research telescope at an observatory. He discovers that the Moon's orbit is veering closer to Earth, and tries to share his findings with Patricia Peterson, who retired from her position as Secretary of Defense. The remnants of NASA also discovers the anomaly, with Joshua Warring and Rosa Watson-Warring leading the government organization. Thomas Barrett is now NASA's deputy director, launching a space drone to investigate the abnormality. An alien nano-swarm attacks the drone, cutting its connections before it can properly map the surface.
Meanwhile, a spaceship crash lands on the Earth's Moon and is also detected by NASA. Warring authorizes another drone to investigate the crashed ship. Miraculously, without the nano-swarm noticing, they managed to discover that it was a humanoid, with the tag saying "Bloodstone." They carried the man back to the base, and resuscitated back to him good health.
Bloodstone, who goes by Henry Dwight on Earth, explained to Warring, Watson, Barrett and the rest of NASA, that he was a man who first discovered alien technology back in 1970, before being sent across the planets to fight for them, as a messiah figure. He was sent back to Earth to save humanity from the aliens, whom previously attempted to invade the planet three years prior, and explained he could not come, due to him having to fight a revolution on another planet.
Bloodstone's last living relative was a man named Titus Philemon, since the rest of his ancestors and descendants were killed by the alien asteroid. Philemon, by then, was with Patricia Peterson and Brian Harris. As Dwight was discharged, he felt the moon crumble, before the moon suddenly became bright orange. When Bloodstone finally arrived at Philemon's house, he warned the three of the coming danger, with Bloodstone befriending Peterson very quicky. Just as he was about to leave, Philemon is killed by an alien nano-swarm, piercing through his body, before Bloodstone vaporized the swarm.
With help from the White House, Patricia, Bloodstone and Brian get into a spaceship that took them a couple hours to reach the moon. They reach the interior of the Moon, revealed to be powered by a white dwarf at its center. The white dwarf, acting as a speaker vessel, told the duo that the aliens, that they've defeated three years ago, built a base inside the Moon as an interstellar base to strike an attack on Earth, killing the rest of humanity by pushing the moon to the Earth. President Warring orders a nuclear strike on the approaching Moon, but remains ineffective. Bloodstone, seeing sacrifice as the only way, tears down the moon's internal structure, as Patricia and Brian escape the collapsing infrastructure of the moon. After a slaughter inside the moon, Bloodstone finally deactivates the white dwarf, making the moon collapse in on itself.
Patricia and Brian make it home safely, as Earth gets to live another day, now without its moon.
Main credits[]
Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.
- Director - Roland Emmerich
- Writers - Roland Emmerich & Harald Kloser and James Vanderbilt
- Producers - Roland Emmerich, Mary Parent, Harald Kloser, James Vanderbilt, Mark Gordon and Larry J. Franco
- Executive producers - Ute Emmerich, William Fay, Volker Engel and Thomas Tull
- Director of photography - Markus Förderer
- Production designer - Barry Chusid
- Visual effects supervisor - Volker Engel
- Film editors - Adam Wolfe, Peter Amundson and Peter Elliott
- Music composers - Harald Kloser and Thomas Wander
Cast[]
- Main article: List of characters in Justice for Love duology
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
- Maika Monroe as Patricia Peterson
- Ray Fisher as Henry "Bloodstone" Dwight
- Alessandra de Rossi as Rosa Watson-Warring
- Patrick Wilson as Joshua Warring
- Bill Pullman as Thomas Barrett
- Djimon Hounsou as Titus Philemon
- Cody Walker as Brian Harris
Production[]
Development[]
After the massive commercial success of the film, Legendary Pictures and TSG Entertainment brought back Emmerich to write and direct two sequels in September 2027 after his new film, Dragon Wars, released, in hopes of launching a Hollywood-reimagined cinematic universe. The sequel, aiming for a November 2029 release, had Emmerich base the film on the real-life supermoon event, and using that as basis for the new aliens. At first, Emmerich was not interested in signing on for another project, citing the critical and commercial failure of Independence Day: Resurgence, and how the production crew, that worked on the original Justice for Love entries, reacted to his film. Emmerich thought it was best for "someone else to take up the mantle," and stating, "I don't think I did a good job. I don't see how this would be any better." However, Legendary offered a sum of $12 million for his involvement in the film. Afterwards, Emmerich was on-board.
Pre-production and writing[]
Harald Kloser came back to write, produce and compose the music for the film. Legendary wanted to rehire Laeta Kalogridis to write the screenplay for the film. However, after the film's release, she disowned the film, stating how it remained unfaithful to her and Patrick Lussier's original story that they wrote for the film, and would not come back to write or produce the film. She would end up writing and producing Alita: Battle Angel 3 instead. Due to this, the film had to halt production, and delayed its release date by an entire year, to September 2030. James Vanderbilt eventually replaced Kalogridis as the partnering screenwriter for Emmerich and Kloser, after she dropped out. In September 2028, it was confirmed that Vanderbilt would produce the film, alongside newcomer Mark Gordon.
On December 2028, it was announced that Maika Monroe, Alessandra de Rossi, Patrick Wilson and Bill Pullman would reprise their roles from the first film. On January 2029, Ray Fisher and Cody Walker were cast in the film, with Fisher as the lead alongside Monroe. On February 2029, Djimon Hounsou was cast as a relative of Fisher's character.
Response from original staff[]
Following the release of the first film, Clueless director and writer Amy Heckerling stated that the earlier screenplay Chris Sparling wrote was actually "better" and faithful despite the changes made. Shusuke Kaneko opposed to the idea of a sequel, as they intended the original film to be standalone. John Krasinski later reiterated his previous statement that the film is destined to fail due to Emmerich's completely different vision.
Filming[]
Principal photography began in March 2029, and wrapped in June 2029, with Markus Förderer reprising his role as cinematographer from the first film. The film was made on a budget of $205-211 million. Unlike the first film, which was shot in IMAX 3D, the film was shot on CinemaScope widescreen digital. Scenes featuring the fictional Heckerling Observatory was actually filmed in the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. Other filming locations include Washington, D.C., Kennedy Space Center and Yellowstone National Park.
An early screening of the rough cut was criticized for its lack of action and slow pace. So, additional scenes were added to fill up the pace in February 2030.
Post-production[]
Like the first film, the visual effects were supervised by Volker Engel. The same four visual effects companies worked on the film; Uncharted Territory, LLC, Scanline VFX, Weta FX and Framestore. Joining them was Method Studios. The moon was "Emmerich's most ambitious project," who wanted to do an effect like it, since Moonfall. Despite Emmerich's comments about the moon, Method Studios and Scanline found the nano-swarm to be the most difficult character to animate and render, as there were thousands of particles within that CG character. VFX supervisor Volker Engel commented on how Emmerich "is sometimes basking in the big spectacle, and forgets on the little things."
Music[]
Like the previous film, the film's music was composed by Harald Kloser and Thomas Wander. The soundtrack was released on September 2, 2030 by WaterTower Music. Kloser and Wander wanted to revamp Sagisu's theme into something more retroactive, to fit the tone of outer space.
Marketing[]
The marketing costs for Blood Moon: Justice for the World were reported to be $100-150 million. Due to the mixed reception the first film got, Warner Bros. wanted to lower it down to $90 million. Roland Emmerich convinced them to push it up. The film was promoted in the 2029 San Diego Comic-Con, by Ray Fisher, Cody Walker, and Yasmien Kurdi, the lead star in the original Toho entries. The full teaser trailer was released on February 20, 2030, with the full trailer releasing on July 5, 2030. The film was promoted again in 2030 San Diego Comic-Con by Walker and Fisher, with a surprise appearance by Gina Alajar, director of the original film.
The film's novelization, written by Alex Irvine, who wrote the novelization for the previous film, was published on September 10 by Titan Books, and the art book The Art of Blood Moon: Justice for the World was released on September 22.
Release[]
Theatrical[]
Blood Moon: Justice for the World premiered in Los Angeles at the red carpet, before being released worldwide on September 13, 2030, in IMAX, 3D, Dolby Cinema, RealD 3D, IMAX 3D, 4DX, and ScreenX. The film was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, except for China, Japan and Philippines, where the film was distributed by Universal Pictures, Toho Co. Ltd. and GMA Pictures. Like with Justice for the End of the World, Toho and GMA Pictures released the film with Japanese and Tagalog dubs respectively.
Boycott[]
Due to the negative reception recieved by the previous film, majority of the staff that were involved with previous installments of the Justice for Love duology decided to boycott the film's premiere in Los Angeles, as a way to express their dissatisfaction regarding Emmerich's treatment to the film, including Ryuhei Kitamura, Shusuke Kaneko, Don Michael Perez, Suzette Doctolero, Amy Heckerling and Alicia Silverstone, with only Alajar and Kurdi attending the red carpet premiere.
Home media[]
The film was released on Digital HD on February 31, 2031, and released on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra HD on March 12, 2031. The 4K release includes HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision high dynamic range, and a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. Best Buy made a two-disc collection, with the first film.
Toho and GMA Pictures released multiple editions of the film on 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD in Japan and the Philippines on May 11, 2031. Like the first film, the film was released with Japanese and Tagalog dubs respectively. GMA Pictures also released a three-disc limited edition set, with the original film and the first film.
Reception[]
Box office[]
Blood Moon: Justice for the World grossed $152 million in the domestic box office, and $354.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $506.4 million. The film's opening weekend earned $161.3 million, with its domestic weekend earning $67.4 million, placing first on box office charts, before it fell to third on the second weekend.
In China, it opened with $68.3 million, and grossed $187 million. In Japan, the film opened with $7 million, before going on to gross a total of $20 million. In the Philippines, the film opened with $3 million, before going on to gross $9 million in total.
Due to its larger production and marketing budget than the first film, Deadline Hollywood reported the film made $27.6 million in net profit, after factoring all expenses and revenues, less than a fourth of the total profits made by the first film.
Critical reception[]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 22% based on 381 reviews, with an average rating of 4.20/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The franchise has already run its course, and Blood Moon: Justice for the World's visual effects cannot save it from the slow pacing and weak script." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 30 out of 100 based on 50 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 69%, and a 51% "definite recommend."
Accolades[]
| Award | Ceremony date | Category | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | March 9, 2031 | Best Visual Effects | Volker Engel, Marc Weigert, Mike Vézina and Josh Jaggars | Nominated |
| BAFTA Awards | February 9, 2031 | Best Sound | Louis Marion, Richard Burnette, Greg P. Russell, Paul Pirola and Sean McCormack | Nominated |
| Visual Effects Society Awards | January 26, 2031 | Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature | Volker Engel, Marc Weigert, Laurent Taillefer, Mike Vézina and Josh Jaggars | Nominated |
| Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature | Brendan Seals, Raphael A. Pimentel, Andrew Zink and Gregory Ng - "The Moon" | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature | Matthew Giampa, Daniel Lee, Adrian Sutherland and Ed Wilkie | Nominated | ||
| Saturn Awards | February 9, 2031 | Best Science Fiction Film | Blood Moon: Justice for the World | Nominated |
| Best Special Effects | Volker Engel, Marc Weigert, Mike Vézina and Josh Jaggars | Nominated | ||
| Satellite Awards | March 2, 2031 | Best Visual Effects | Nominated | |
| Golden Raspberry Awards | March 15, 2031 | Worst Picture | Roland Emmerich, Mary Parent, Harald Kloser, James Vanderbilt, Mark Gordon and Larry J. Franco | Nominated |
| Worst Director | Roland Emmerich | Won | ||
| Worst Screenplay | Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser and James Vanderbilt | Won | ||
| Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel | Blood Moon: Justice for the World | Won | ||
| Worst Screen Combo | Maika Monroe, Ray Fisher and Cody Walker | Nominated |
Sequels[]
- Main article: War for Justice Across Worlds
- Main article: Survival of the Justice for the World
- Main article: Justice for the World: Brothers in Arms
- Main article: Justice for the World: End of Times
- Main article: Justice for the World: The Final Fate
A third installment, titled War for Justice Across Worlds, was released on October 31, 2032, to mixed reviews, but was received more positively than the first and second films, and grossed $652 million.
A prequel-sequel to the first film, titled Survival of the Justice for the World, was released on June 11, 2033, taking place between the asteroid impact and the war against the aliens. It was directed and shot by Zack Snyder, and written by Snyder, Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser, Shay Hatten and Kurt Johnstad. After the resolution of the conflict between him and Warner Bros., Snyder was interested in the franchise, and asked Emmerich if he could direct an entry. The film was in-production, months before the third film was released. The film received mixed reviews, and was a box office success, as it grossed $545.6 million, against a $198-223 million budget.
A fifth installment, acting as a standalone sequel, titled Justice for the World: Brothers in Arms, was released on October 20, 2036, starring Tom Cruise and Dwayne Johnson, to positive reviews and critical acclaim, and grossed $943.9 million. Two entries, Justice for the World: End of Times and Justice for the World: The Final Fate were released on September 2, 2038 and September 1, 2039, respectively. Both films were critically acclaimed, with both receiving Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, and McQuarrie being nominated for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for The Final Fate. The Final Fate became the highest-grossing film in the franchise, grossing $1.125 billion.
Trivia[]
- This is the first entry in the Justice for Love duology that has no elements from the Toho entries, as the original film was never intended to have a sequel.
- At the beginning of the film, Brian Harris secretly uses a telescope at the fictional Heckerling Observatory, which is named after Amy Heckerling, director and writer of Clueless, also previously attached to direct the first film under Paramount.
- Additionally, it also references William Henry Pickering, an astronomer that constructed and established the real-life Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, the observatory that discovered the dwarf planet Pluto in 1930.
- While the original entries were conceptualized after impact events, the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction, and asteroid impact avoidance, the film was conceived from the supermoon event, a natural phenomenon reguarly occuring due to perigee syzygy on the Earth–Moon–Sun system, and has no connections to the themes of the Justice for Love duology, meant as a cautionary tale.
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