Blue Moon Rising Reviews

Documenting the highs and lows of Manchester City Football Club's 2009-10 season, Blue Moon Rising offers no more insight than the video content that can be found on the club's official website. Choosing to focus on the 'heroes' of City's inaugural season of the Khaldoon Al Mubarak era, players such as Emmanuel Adeybayor, Craig Bellamy and Carlos Tevez, are portrayed as the bright future awaiting City, making the film already horrifically dated. Since Mancini's appointment as manager, Adeybayor has already fallen out of favour (with loan spells at Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur following this revelation) as has Craig Bellamy, who spent the 2010-11 season on loan at Cardiff City before making a move to Liverpool. Carlos Tevez, or the 'hitman' as described in the film, is unlikely to ever play for City again after a significant period of controversy in which it was claimed that he refused to come on as a substitute against Bayern Munich. Other than the hero-worshiping, there is some semblance of commentary on the addictiveness of supporting your team (as Liam Gallagher says in the film "whether they win or lose is irrelevant") but it's drowned by heavily fictionalised accounts of previous seasons as recalled by some of the fans interviewed for the film. Rising is at it's best when splicing together genuinely exciting match-action with some staggering footage of the supporters giving their all (highlights include the Manchester United 'ultras' doing their best to change the Etihad from blue to red) but as a whole it's a rather forgettable, shallow and, in light of recent events, pointless look at a future for Man City that isn't going to happen in the way that was expected. But I guess hindsight is a wonderful tool.