Review of Iron Sky (2012) by Alan P — 19 Jun 2013

In movies, Earth has been invaded by aliens, vampires, ghosts, monsters, supermen, gods, plants, zombies, and so much more! However, Iron Sky presents one more fantastic and deliciously ludicrous invasion story: this time Earth is invaded...by Nazis from the moon! That's right, the Third Reich is alive and well on the dark side of the moon, still harboring a ridiculously over-the-top fanaticism for a culture and ideology that is now over sixty years dead. As silly and cheesy as this concept is, the film plays things out with a firm tongue-in-cheek attitude, and with plenty of satire. At the film's last act, however, we are treated to a splendid space battle involving stellar zeppelins hauling moon rocks, and Nazis flying around in flying saucers!

As you can surmise, the story is as silly as they come, going so far as to toss in every German or WWII reference the filmmakers could think of to emphasize the scope and scale of the ridiculousness (with spaceships named Siegfried and Gotterdammerung, with Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries playing during every battle scene, Hitler himself would have been proud). Characters aren't terribly deep or moving, but there is definitely a strong political agenda that surfaces; with one character looking a little too much like Sarah Palin, and a spaceship blatantly called the George W Bush, the film really strikes a blow to the right wing, harping on resource depletion and senseless warfare.

The film looks rather cheap. Its photography and editing generally get the job done. Acting and writing are incredibly zany and over-the-top. This production uses okay-looking sets, props, and costumes. Special effects are pretty mixed; some of them look terrible, but they are still better than other films I've seen, and I really admire the detail and imagination that went into them. The music used in this film is really weird, but also really cool.

Iron Sky is one of the funniest, silliest, and more thrilling B-movies I've seen. For anybody with a good sense of humor, it comes recommended.

3/5 (Entertainment: Good | Story: Marginal | Film: Average).