The First Men in the Moon

I never read the book but this is vastly different than the original movie. I didn't notice that it was made for TV until now but that explains the extremely low budget. Even with a low budget, the special effects were better than in the original. The story itself though is equally bad. At one point a guy dreams that he is in a silent movie and it's very bizarre. It's clearly just an excuse to shoehorn Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton into the movie. The end doesn't even make any sense. Mark Gatiss does have an interesting take on the story though. This is definitely worth watching if you have seen the original movie, just to see that time couldn't make it any better.

In 1969, everyone is looking to the moon for the Apollo landing. Young Jim gets lost at an English country fair and happens upon 90-year-old Julius Bedford who recounts his story as the first man on the moon. In 1909, struggling writer Bedford (Rory Kinnear) meets eccentric scientist Cavor (Mark Gatiss) who invented an anti-gravity substance.

The concept is a bit better than the execution. It's an adaptation of a H. G. Wells story. I'm fine with doing an alternate sci-fi. The designs are fine even if the CGI is lesser level. I don't find the characters that compelling. Bringing the present day to 1969 makes some sense but I wonder if bringing it to modern day wouldn't be better. It's a tall tale and that could fun. I really don't like popping off the heads and the story doesn't really have any great thrills. It's more interesting than compelling. It's slightly interesting.

If you're expecting an action-packed movie of aliens vs. humans like the Alien franchise or the Predator franchise then forget about watching this. This is a family-friendly movie to watch with the family during a lazy afternoon. It was relatively loyal to the novel written by H. G. Wells. It discusses the dangers of imperialism and greed of the era and the pursuit of knowledge at any cost.

You have to give credit to Mark Gatiss who despite being in an obviously low-budget movie is able to entertain the viewer. I'm not too familiar with Rory Kinnear's work except that he played a great villain in iBoy and I like his work on the Bond franchise, but he played a great role in this movie too.

I have seen Sci-fi movies that have made me nauseous to watch them. However, this movie I believe paid a genuine homage to the 1950-60's science fiction movies. The one thing that I didn't like was the alien's appearance, which was a bit weak and could have used a bit more work.

This adaptation seemed void of any dramatic tension and had very little comedy. It has it's moments, but I'm struggling to think of them having just watched the film. Far too often the characters would just ramble on and on, spouting exposition. Uncomfortably trying to shoehorn between Wells's original fantasy vision and the reality of science as we understand it today. Gatis wrote the screenplay and needed a strong editor. The direction and sets were equally uninspiring. Whereas the 1964 movie lives on in my memory - this version will be quickly forgotten. All in all it was like a bad episode of Dr Who. I also have to say the make up was appalling. Rory Kinnear's fake beard looked ridiculous.

This was an interesting sort of a remake,, I couldnt decide if it was a genuine remake or an attempt to turn out a brand new film for very very few dollars. I would strongly advise anyone to go find the original and watch it instead. Its so close in places that i watched to see if they had slotted new actors into old scenes , if thats the case it was quite clever , if it was all new ,, it was quite sad.