In 1988, a police officer is hungry to become a detective and begins tracking a serial killer who resurfaces every nine years. But when the killer's crimes defy all scientific explanation, the officer's obsession threatens to destroy everything.
There are a few familiar faces in this cast list; Michael C. Hall (Dexter), Bokeem Woodbine (Fargo and Black Dynamite), and Boyd Holbrook (Logan and Narcos), all with reasonable experience in relation to action and crime dramas. While the quality of the cast is rather impressive, the end-product is no better off because of it. In fact, these familiar faces tend to take your focus away from the story occurring on-screen, giving the audience a false sense of expectation around the actor's roles.
There is still a lot to like about In The Shadow Of The Moon. The opening twenty minutes of the film throws the audience right into the thick of the action, with a surprisingly high-paced and bloody sequence that hooks you in with a few niggling unanswered questions. The excitement of those opening scenes was an absolute thrill, and if that content was what made up the majority of the film, it would no doubt be a winner. Instead, the film peaked at the beginning and--while engagement didn't drop too significantly--it wasn't able to match the intensity of those early scenes.
There has been a bit of a mixed response around the film so far, and a lot of it comes down to expectations and the focus on the film. The film involves a crime spree that occurs every nine years. The film doesn't actually spend a lot of time on the criminal investigation aspect of the story, instead, focusing on the personal emotional impact it has had on our protagonist due to his obsessive tendencies. This creates a much slower pace, and more emotional tone to the film, which requires you to be fully on the protagonist's side to remain invested in the story (especially as the time jumps can lead to the film being a little repetitive).
Overall, the film is quite well-grounded. While intriguing, the sci-fi aspects of the story are one of the big polarizing elements, as the progressively increasing presence builds to such a level that the concluding payoff--while present--doesn't match to an extent that it feels satisfying. The ending is rushed and--timeline questions aside--not enough time was spent on the reveal.
In The Shadow Of The Moon is in the same vein of Minority Report, Terminator, Looper, and 12 Monkeys, but lacked sufficient world-building to make this story memorable. There are some great scenes, with some shocking twists and turns, but it doesn't spend enough time on the consequences and moral implications to make the film standout. Still, there is enough originality in the premise to keep your interest throughout the 115-minute runtime.