Wiwille's movie reviews part 93

Sci-fi films are somewhat of a mixed bag. When they're good, they're excellent, but the majority is chock full of stupidity. Granted even some of the worst are well intentioned and have an interesting premise, but for whatever reason the end result becomes a nonsensical story that relies on effects in place of fleshing out a decent plot. Still you have to give the makers of some films for their originality, especially if you're largely unfamiliar with B films, as I am.

Iron Sky is one of those films that sounds great on paper, but when actually watching it you wonder how they could make such an interesting premise turn out so boring. Set in 2018, America has elected Sarah Palin as President, but the film never actually mentions her by name, but instead plays upon how most see her. For political purposes she decides to send a black astronaut to the moon, which her administration play upon the stereotypes of Americans as seeing it as plausible to most as finding a unicorn lair. But with the can do spirit of America, it happens and two astronauts end up on the dark side of the moon, and come across a Nazi base.

Apparently the Third Reich launched a manned mission to the moon at the end of WWII in order to build a new colony and bide their time before they invade Earth and fulfill their dead Furher's dream. They capture the black astronaut, who in order to save his life offers a meeting with the President. The astronaut gets transformed into white face and after some fish out of water jokes they meet with the yet to be named Palin, and become part of her Cheif of Staff. They help shape America into a propaganda machine similar to something Goebbels would be proud of.

After some wacky adventures, one of the previously mentioned Nazis takes his rightful place as Furher, and with the help of a captured cell phone, goes back to the base to start the invasion of Earth. Earth retaliates by launching their own spaceships, and a climatic battle ensues.

As a comedic sci-fi film, this had a lot of promise, but sadly the jokes aren't that funny. It should've been a laugh romp, but it fails in almost every respect. Given the silliness of its premise it could've been a cult classic, but sadly it's as forgettable as it is stupid. While film goers would probably be lured by the premise, they'll come to the shocking revelation that its as boring as most moronic sci-fi films that try to be clever, but fail miserably.

It's not that Iron Sky is a terrible film as you've seen far worse, it's just frighteningly mediocre. I will admit, I laughed at the North Korean crack, but otherwise you could see the jokes coming from miles away, and lets be real, all the good Palin jokes and caricatures of Sarah Palin have already been done do death, and far better than this script could muster. This could've been at least great political satire, similar to what Starship Troopers was attempting, but you're in for no such luck. Iron Sky should've been something along the lines of the Evil Dead franchise, but instead, we got...well...its hard to compare it to an equally forgettable film, for obvious reasons.

Thanks to Shaun for submitting this. Wanna see a film reviewed by Wiwille? Drop me an email or comment and you'll see it soon on One Bad Apple. Rules are posted here.

"Great idea, lousy execution: "Iron Sky" boasts one of the zaniest premises in recent memory, and somehow manages to squander most of its potential." - Jeff Shannon