Iron Sky - La battaglia continua

Possibly the stupidest film I've ever seen. I don't necessarily mean that's a bad thing.

I loved Iron Sky 1 for what it was, a good SF B-Movie with some very sarcastic and even intelligent political in-jokes. I would rate the first Iron Sky 6/10, or even 7+/10 within its B-movie genre.

This sequel is a big disappointment, unfortunately (and, to reiterate, I write this as someone who loves B-movies and I even donated some money for this sequel during its crowdfunding phase):

• Weak plot, based on a terrible script. No credible bad guy/gal, "jokes" that simply don't work or are tired (for example: "jailbroken" iPhones in 2019?), coupled with wooden acting. However, I don't think the actors are to blame a lot given the incredibly weak script and thin plot they had to work with.

• The special effects are not much better than in the first movie, where did the budget (around 3X the amount of the first movie, 20+ million versus 7-8 million Euro!) end up? For example, the director asked for extra crowdfunding money for some additional "Vril" kill scenes that add next to nothing in the final version.

• On a personal note (since I helped to crowd-fund the project): Weak communication with the funders and supporters, all credibility is broken or lost, especially concerning the prior promises from director Timo Vuorensola. "Normal" moviegoers got to see the sequel weeks or months in advance - and since the movie leaked out to the usual Internet sites, there was and is no sound logic in NOT providing a digital copy (or at least a stream) to all the backers who funded this movie in good faith many, many years ago.

(Partial reason for all the delays: The movie ended up in development hell because of legal troubles with a few members of the FX team from the first movie concerning intellectual property. I will spare you the boring details. This results in more of the jokes and puns that COULD have worked a few years ago being completely outdated as of 2019.).

Recommendation for a third Iron Sky movie (which is at least hinted at when the credits roll):

Get a better scriptwriter, get a better scriptwriter. Did I mention to get a better scriptwriter? And maybe a new director as well.

Seriously, who thought that this was a good or even average script (even for a B-movie)!? To add insult to injury, they even used crowdfunding for the script. A quote from their IGG page:

"In the first phase, we are looking to raise $150 000. This money will be used to produce a full script for the film..."

A film student could have probably written a much better script for $1500. One percent of their budget. I'm being serious (you will likely agree with me once you watched the dreadful movie).

Update on my original review above: It looks like the Finnish production company behind the IS franchise quietly went bankrupt (no wonder given the box office flop of IS 2), therefore a third movie to end the Iron Sky trilogy on Mars looks very unlikely at the moment. Maybe a new company picks up the rights to the franchise and hires more competent people?

The first Iron Sky took a great premise, and injected it with great characters, witty dialogue, great action scenes, and fantastic special effects. So ever since seeing it, I've eagerly anticipated the sequel.

The Coming Race builds on the theories of Nazi esotericism, and promises a lot. Unfortunately it delivers very little. Virtually everything that made the first film what it was, is entirely missing in this sequel.

The characters are flat. Even the characters reappearing from the original are flat. There's absolutely no humour in this film. I didn't laugh once. Not once. The pacing is all over the shop, leading to what can only be described as a jumbled up mess. The annoying expository voice over from the film's main protagonist scattered throughout the film is simply cringeworthy.

The CGI is this films saving grace, and is quite fantastic for the budget That along with the costumes and set designs, are probably the only saving graces of this dire film.

A film that features spaceships, Nazis and dinosaurs, should hit the target every time, but The Coming Race misses the target by a country mile.

After I'd watched this I actually felt quite angry. That sort of anger someone feels when their Tinder date doesn't match their profile picture in any way shape or form. Extremely disappointing.

I gave the first Iron sky a 8/10. For a crazy plot it somehow all worked really well, good humor. Some likable characters. And it felt cohesive.

The sequel on the other hand feels like a bit of a mess. You can see the potential for a better film and it's pretty frustrating. The VFX for a 20 mil budget is pretty good. But the plot is just ridiculous and not in a good way like its predecessor. Most of characters were not funny and badly written. It doesn't make sense in really badly written ways that i feel could've been easily changed to make it a bit better than it was and not so by the numbers with plot holes that take you away from immersion in the wacky world they're trying to represent. Personally if i wrote this film, I would've taken it in a entirely different direction. All the pop culture references mostly didn't work as intended, instead of being funny it was just cringey. And the ending was just dumb and rushed.

But I didn't hate the film, I was mildly entertained, enjoyed the visuals/world they created and because i liked the first film quite a bit, perhaps im being a little forgiving when giving it a 5/10. I can understand why people would vote it lower tho.

A younger, high audience may get more enjoyment out of this. I'm getting older and don't smoke bud anymore. Perhaps that made a difference in my enjoyment, I dunno.

I'd say to give it a go if you liked the first film, make your own assessment. I can imagine there will be some people who will like it. Its definitely not totally terrible.

After reading the other reviews - and after seeing the movie at its Berlin premiere - I have to say I find those reviews a bit too harsh.

Yes, it's probably not gonna win an Oscar but what do you expect when you read the story?

I think it's a decent B-movie and there are certainly worse ways to spend 90 minutes of your life.

The CGI work is once again very impressive and if you really want to critize something, it's the dialogues which can hardly be any more wooden at times.

Besides that it reminds a bit of teens having their first encounter with the other gender - a long build up with a very quick finish (pun not intended).

And if you watched the Q&A after the showing: I think we're all waiting now for the third part with Udo Kier as Nazi robot crocodile where only his lower part works.

Watch it!