Iron Sky

US astronauts disturb a Nazi moonbase, and the Nazis launch an expedition to earth to pick up a computer tablet to power their final invasion using a super-fuel mined from the moon.

Hectic spoof sci-fi that's totally illogical, full of plot holes, and yet turns into a good satire. Effects are done really well, plenty of other movies referred to (including the music), and closest in spirit probably to Flash Gordon from 1980.

It does hurry itself along, so the pace is good but at the expense I think of decent character based gags. The acting was good, particularly the females - the lead was very charming, and the president and her sidekick were mean and brisk.

A final plus is that some US reviewers don't like fun being poked at their awful political system.

Overall not great, but it was refreshing.

As we have always feared, the Nazis have been hiding on the dark side of the moon since the end of WWII. Plotting their triumphant return to power, they have waited these many decades. When an American lunar mission happens upon the enormous, hidden Nazi fortress, it causes problems both on the moon and back on Earth.

In IRON SKY, much has changed since the Reich was booming on our planet, including an African American astronaut, a female President of the United States, and the UN transformed into a World Confederacy! The Fuhrer would be appalled! When a Nazi mission to Earth takes them to New York City, the real fun starts.

The best way to describe this movie would be to liken it to what Mel Brooks might have created in his prime. It lampoons racism, sexism, fascism, political idiocy, high fashion, etc., by being an utterly over the top satire thereof. Plus, it's very well made, in addition to being hysterically funny! The main characters are perfectly ridiculous, yet not annoyingly so. The acting / dialogue is mostly dead pan, making it far more effective than a more slapstick approach. The result is a crackpot sci-fi parody wrapped around a mega-spoof. Highly inventive and entertaining...

IRON SKY is the perfect example of a modern-day B-movie, an international collaboration boasting plenty of excellent special effects to back up an involved and engaging storyline. It's not often I watch a film and think "there's something I haven't seen before", but it happened with IRON SKY.

The opening sequence is elaborately staged and quite captivating, offering a much better menace than that of APOLLO 18 (which I also watched recently). From there on then the film builds in complexity, introducing multiple shades-of-grey characters who embark on a story filled with twists and surprises.

At the end of the day, IRON SKY is a film all about the visual effects, and they're excellent throughout. Whether you're looking for interstellar warfare, colonised cities in space or more earthly destruction, this movie has it. The CGI is faultless, adding to the impression that this is far more than your routine B-movie.

There's plenty of satire in the film, aimed not just at the obvious targets but at America too - the benefits of a Finnish/German/Australian production. Quite a few of the central performances are decent and the quirkiness never lets up for a moment. For once, IRON SKY is a concept movie with a real story to go with it.

I saw the Iron Sky recently in a preview screening. And, I quite liked it.

For those that do not know, Iron Sky is a Sci-fi action comedy from a team of Finnish "independent" film makers lead by Timo Vuorensola as the director. Iron Sky tells a story about 'freaking space Nazis from the dark side of the moon coming back to earth'.

For what it is, the movie works fine. It's not a masterpiece of dramatic cinematic flavor on line with Citizen Kane or Pianist with some deep philosophical dialog. No, its more in the line of campy Nazisploitation and over-the top action, as one would come to expect. And as one would expect, the movie is absolutely ridiculous. It has its many fun moments and true laugh out loud scenes, specially made for those viewers who are into internet/computer/pop culture related stuff, which presence makes sense considering the guys who made this film are "self taught" young film makers who basically 'grew up' making movies of their own, and are the children of the Internets.

Iron Sky has a really good cast who deliver consistently strong performance throughout the film. With Udo Kier being my absolute favorite who sadly goes somewhat underused with his too old to care and strictly for business Nazi führer of the moon guy... (Oh well, I still have him as the Yuri in Red Alert 2.) Weirdly, Götz Otto being the go-to baddie of the movie, delivers somewhat dry and unnoteworthy performance. And I think it felt this way was because there was a subtlety in his acting which sadly vanishes under rest of the silliness in the film.

Now as expected from the guys who previously did the Star Wrek comedy films, they made absolutely brilliant CGI effects for Iron Sky. I rarely could tell which stuff were done with practical effects and which were done with CGI, which is a very good thing. There are many moments which I knew were definitely done with computers, but still were a blast to watch. Nothing there is jarring or unnecessary feeling, like in majority of the other CGI motion pictures of today.

Now there are some few shortcomings in the film of course, few minor stuff here and there, but also one bigger aspect that was quite difficult to overlook. And that is that the Iron Sky skips around, a lot. It felt like there were tons of shots missing from between the key scenes. You'll watch the characters do something and have it immediately cut to a later moment in time, or to a completely different scene all together. The movie leaves a lot for the viewers to fill in. That was not too difficult for me one I adjusted. It's a bit distracting, yes. But if you manage to push it past, you'll find interesting plot unfolding. Now while I had no difficulties following the movie, I can also see someone used to the regular Hollywood "tell it to the audience" type movies being lost with this film. While the important scenes needed for the plot are still very much present, the sudden jumps might leave the viewer lagging behind, you might get some whiplashes watching this film.

However, there is a very understandable excuse for that, which the director himself told us in the theater on the Q&A session after the film. And it's that way because they had to cut stuff from the script as they simply had no money to realistically do most of them. Iron Sky had a budget of only of 7 million Euros, which compared to other proper big movies, is nothing. They said that every scene they did had to be done in the way of "we'll shoot this if we get the money to do it". And considering that, it's amazing they managed as much as they did.

Iron Sky is a fun little movie that definitely differs from your average schlock. I'd recommend to watch it, if only for the sake of curiosity. (And ridiculous Nazis.)

And what about the the ending? Who wins? Oh, you'll have to watch the movie to find out. You might get a surprise. It might make you stop and think... I know it made me.

Saw this movie the 62nd Berlinale (Berlin Film Festival). Recommend its worth your time given a few caveats.

Lots of things to like about Timo's sophomore effort here. The movie is intentionally campy and plays to a number of eccentric stereotypes. Albeit, it feels very much a European view of some of the US eccentricities. The script was, by and large, well developed, the humor a little cheesy at times but generally spot on and large kudos should be paid to the FX, CGI teams for some outstanding segments in a sub $10M budgeted movie. The best parts include some great inside jokes specific to Americans and Germans, wonderful stereotyping of international ethnicities/prejudices, great attention to detail in costumes, sets, current culture trends and some above average acting by Julia Dietze, Goetze Otto and, of course, the wonderful Udo Kier. Oh, and the Laibach score for the movie was simply superb.

My caveats are that the cut I saw could have used slightly more surgical editing. Also, while I think Christopher Kirby has played well in other movies, I felt disappointed by this casting choice, as his role was central to the story line and the least "even" in terms of performance. Finally, it is intentional camp so expectations should be adjusted prior to entering the theater. I'm not sure the Mystery Science Theater guys could have come up with better lines than some that were already in the script of this movie.

In the end this felt much more thought out and a real "labor of love" than the traditional camp of Scary Movie, et al. This movie certainly has all the right elements of an instant cult classic. Putting it more simply, its about Nazis, living in a swastika shaped Moon base, trying to re-invade Earth!

My sincere thanks to the Iron Sky community for pulling the resources together to get this film made. For $7.5M I'd say, job very well done! This is probably, or usually, a ~7 IMDb score for this kind of a movie. I'm giving it 8 to balance out the previous reviewer.