Iron Sky certainly isn't the worst film of the year so far (that accolade belongs to Act of Valour) but it is the worst of the past seven days and that's a week that included Piranha 3DD! There are plot spoilers ahead so if you're still interested in seeing the film after my opening line, I'd suggest we part company now. Feel free to drop me a line, though, if you watch Iron Sky and it all makes sense to you. I'd be intrigued to hear how somebody of sound mind could defend it.
I approached it in much the same way as the 'biting fish and tits' flick, assuming it would be a pastiche or would at least be funny, but I departed very disappointed. Iron Sky doesn't take itself too seriously, that isn't the issue, though it does become a little full of itself. However, it has completely forgotten to be funny or even remotely consistent. It makes it's own rules up as it goes along and then breaks them on a whim.
The premise: In 1945 the Germans fled to the dark side of the moon to lick their wounds and prepare for a full attack on the world at a later date. In 2018, The President of the USA (nameless but clearly and badly based on Sarah Palin), unaware of the Nazi base, sends a mission to the moon in the hope it will win her a second term and consequently spoils the Fourth Reich's plan. The Nazis take one of the astronauts hostage and kill the others. Then, discovering the astronaut's mobile phone powers their ship, they opt to go to Earth to steal more phones in order to power the rest of the ships so they can finally take over the world.
It could have been very clever and it should have been very funny but, regardless of the filmmakers' intentions, it's just a tedious, confusing car crash of a film. I knew of an American several years ago who decided to impress her English boyfriend and his parents with a traditional English Christmas meal. All went well until dessert, whereupon she served a choice of trifle or mince pies. Alas, she assumed that 'jelly' in England is the same as in the USA and so made the trifle with strawberry jam and, for the mince pies, yes, you guessed it, she mixed the cherries, dried fruit and brandy with minced beef. Iron Sky is the filmic equivalent of her catering but probably less funny as an anecdote.
Although shot on a tight budget of about 7.5m, the effects and models are mostly quite good or at least sufficient enough not to jar too much and that's about as good as it gets with Iron Sky. The design of some the ships and machinery leaves a bit to be desired and technology seems to have evolved at different rates on the moon i.e. the Nazis have a vast fleet of space craft that can reach Earth but are still faffing around with computers the size of a small room and haven't developed a mobile phone.
And that brings us to the innumerable flaws and inconsistencies: Despite needing to steal phones in order to power the ships, when it all goes wrong, they still somehow launch all of their ships. For some reason neither the USA nor the moon base has radar, time seems completely lost as characters return to the moon apparently within minutes while battles still rage in the sky, Earthlings are blissfully unaware of any issues in the sky despite the colossal loss of life across the globe, characteristics change on a whim, astronauts become homeless, penniless tramps in an instant You know what? Forget it. Life's too short to point out the ineptitude of the writers and director who don't even warrant a name check here. It's quicker to watch the film for yourself than for me to detail even half the problems. I'd rather spend that time slamming my head in the car door.
Iron Sky is utter bilge. If after reading this you still go to see it, you deserve everything you get. Put it this way, if my life depended on watching either Piranha 3DD or Iron Sky again, the tits and the fish would win, hands down! For more reviews from The Squiss subscribe to my blog at www.thesquiss.co.uk
I approached it in much the same way as the 'biting fish and tits' flick, assuming it would be a pastiche or would at least be funny, but I departed very disappointed. Iron Sky doesn't take itself too seriously, that isn't the issue, though it does become a little full of itself. However, it has completely forgotten to be funny or even remotely consistent. It makes it's own rules up as it goes along and then breaks them on a whim.
The premise: In 1945 the Germans fled to the dark side of the moon to lick their wounds and prepare for a full attack on the world at a later date. In 2018, The President of the USA (nameless but clearly and badly based on Sarah Palin), unaware of the Nazi base, sends a mission to the moon in the hope it will win her a second term and consequently spoils the Fourth Reich's plan. The Nazis take one of the astronauts hostage and kill the others. Then, discovering the astronaut's mobile phone powers their ship, they opt to go to Earth to steal more phones in order to power the rest of the ships so they can finally take over the world.
It could have been very clever and it should have been very funny but, regardless of the filmmakers' intentions, it's just a tedious, confusing car crash of a film. I knew of an American several years ago who decided to impress her English boyfriend and his parents with a traditional English Christmas meal. All went well until dessert, whereupon she served a choice of trifle or mince pies. Alas, she assumed that 'jelly' in England is the same as in the USA and so made the trifle with strawberry jam and, for the mince pies, yes, you guessed it, she mixed the cherries, dried fruit and brandy with minced beef. Iron Sky is the filmic equivalent of her catering but probably less funny as an anecdote.
Although shot on a tight budget of about 7.5m, the effects and models are mostly quite good or at least sufficient enough not to jar too much and that's about as good as it gets with Iron Sky. The design of some the ships and machinery leaves a bit to be desired and technology seems to have evolved at different rates on the moon i.e. the Nazis have a vast fleet of space craft that can reach Earth but are still faffing around with computers the size of a small room and haven't developed a mobile phone.
And that brings us to the innumerable flaws and inconsistencies: Despite needing to steal phones in order to power the ships, when it all goes wrong, they still somehow launch all of their ships. For some reason neither the USA nor the moon base has radar, time seems completely lost as characters return to the moon apparently within minutes while battles still rage in the sky, Earthlings are blissfully unaware of any issues in the sky despite the colossal loss of life across the globe, characteristics change on a whim, astronauts become homeless, penniless tramps in an instant You know what? Forget it. Life's too short to point out the ineptitude of the writers and director who don't even warrant a name check here. It's quicker to watch the film for yourself than for me to detail even half the problems. I'd rather spend that time slamming my head in the car door.
Iron Sky is utter bilge. If after reading this you still go to see it, you deserve everything you get. Put it this way, if my life depended on watching either Piranha 3DD or Iron Sky again, the tits and the fish would win, hands down! For more reviews from The Squiss subscribe to my blog at www.thesquiss.co.uk