Review of First Man (2018) by Muldjord — 23 Nov 2018
Get ready for long strides of Ryan Gosling staring stone-faced around rooms and space capsules. I get it, Neil was never a talkative guy, so the portrayal, while snooze-inducing, is probably on point. Sadly, it makes for some really slow, devoid of dialog and almost lifeless passages. And those are the scenes on Earth! Neil's demeanor pretty much kills all of the drama as it happens. Completely devoid of emotion. Might be accurate, but it makes for some damn boring scenes.
The scenes in space are pretty much a mix of fast cutting between zoomed in buttons and displays, a lot of shaking and the occasional view from outside the capsules. The technical details of pretty much everything is cut down to the bare minimum. Most of the time you have no idea what is going on. And the worst part is that even the moon landing itself seems so devoid of excitement that I just didn't care about it. I just wanted the movie to end!
Normally, when I watch movies or documentaries on this stuff, I am almost in tears when they reach the points of great significance. Not the case for this one! I just sat there. No interest in the scene. Nothing but boredom.
Bottom line: This movie is 90 minutes of Neil Armstrong getting in and out of capsules mixed with some incredibly slow-moving family moments on Earth being interrupted by calls about colleague accidents. Then he goes to the Moon, quickly skips to being back on Earth and the movie ends.
This review of First Man (2018) was written by Muldjord on 23 Nov 2018.
First Man has generally received positive reviews.
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