Iron Sky

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.

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.

To promote the president and maybe pick up a little hydrogen 3 on the side astronaut are sent to the far side of the moon. There they find that they are not the first to do a little mining. Yep, the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) has been there since 1945. This triggers the plans of the NSDAP to take over the world.

Will they succeed or will they only boost the president's chances for re-election?

I tried hard to keep a straight face during the movie, but they got me going and practically non-stop. One of my favorite spots is when everyone in the UN was trying to find out where the threat was coming from; each country denied it was their people. Then North Korea representative admitted that they are behind it.

The acting was great, the dialog pungent. There was a little too much potty mouth, but it was not enough to be gratuitous. The CGI was quite adequate. The background music was not overwhelming the dialog. They did not try to be too campy. In all, it was a well-balanced movie with a big-budget feel.

It was nice to have subtitles. However, 90 percent of the German used was so fundamental that you could follow quite well at that pace.

I look for more from this team: Original story - Johanna Sinisalo Original concept - Jarmo Puskala Screenplay - Michael Kalesniko Writer - Timo Vuorensola

I will watch it again to see the nuances.

I saw the film yesterday in Oslo and I must say I thought it was exhilarating, fresh and different. It's also one of those films that you either love or hate, I do not think it is one that you can be indifferent to.

The German language adds a nice touch, and the way it is used helps a lot with creating a believable atmosphere to some scenes. The actors are doing a good job of portraying the stereotypes that they need in order for the humor to work. The humor is pleasantly free from political correctness. And there are many nice references throughout the film, so if you have been living in a cave (or on the moon) for the last seventy years, I doubt you will find it as funny as I personally did.

The CGI is stunning when at it's best. It is not perfect everywhere, but all in all it is quite convincing. The style can best be described as toned down and with natural colors that work very well for this film.

The story is funny if you let it stand on it's own and accept it for what it is. Let yourself be entertained. I am sure that if you have a very critical mindset when going to see this film you will probably find something to pick on. Things could probably be a bit better and more consistent in a + $100M film, but I do not think we would see this expressive freedom in a + $100M film...

The soundtrack was also well thought of and added the needed atmosphere trough the whole film. Not one tune seemed misplaced and I thought it was very impressive.

I liked Iron Sky a lot, and I would recommend it in a heartbeat. I believe this film has the potential to be the cult film of the year. And I think it will do well for itself on cinemas around the world.

When I decided to watch 'Iron Sky' I expected to be entertained by a tasteless and offensive piece of trash. Instead I was entertained by a reasonably intelligent and well made sci-fi comedy that also works as political satire. Of course the idea of nazis on the moon is bizarre, but all in all I did not feel offended by the film (I will explain in a minute why not).

In 2018, the US return to the moon. There, astronaut James Washington (Christopher Kirby) loses contact with mission control because he is attacked and captured. His attackers are the guards of a moon fortress where the nazis are hiding who escaped the 'downfall' of the Reich in 1945. The nazis discover Washington's mobile and decide they need more of these devices to finally make their ultimate weapon operational - the weapon that will allow them to conquer earth. Accordingly they send an expedition (headed by their presumptive next Führer Klaus Adler, played by Götz Otto) that lands in New York... There are a couple of really good ideas in the film. For example, Adler has no trouble at all taking over the re-election campaign of the president (Stephanie Paul), who is clearly modelled on Sarah Palin. In this respect reality has of course trumped satire. There are also a few nice quotes of earlier films. When Paul as president sees her campaign faltering, she throws a tantrum that reminds you of Hitler's in 'Der Untergang' (Hirschbiegel 2004). Another film quoted is Kubrick's 'Dr Strangelove' (1964). The anti-racist message of the film is nicely packaged and not too obtrusive; it is one of the things that prevents 'Iron Sky' from being offensive. The other is that the film mocks and ridicules the nazis quite effectively. On the downside, most of the acting (except Kirby's and Julia Dietze's, who plays Adler's fiancee) is no more than alright, and the storyline does get pretty convoluted. Still, all in all I was pleasantly surprised.