Iron Sky.
A movie about space Nazis living on the dark side of the moon and their subsequent invasion of Earth. And, oh, so much more.
Two of our lucky robots have gotten the chance to see this bad boy and it’s time to start drooling and asking “When the hell is this getting released already?”
Citizen-bot: This is one of those movies all I had to hear was the basic premise and I was sold– kind of like Swankmotron’s most recent book. In any case, you mix Nazis with the supernatural or sci-fi and I’m in.
Robo-shinobi: I couldn’t agree more. If you’re the type of person who hears the words “Moon-Nazis” and just shuts down from lack of interest, a) what are you doing on this site? b) keep reading, you might be surprised and you might just grow a little.
CB: This movie is funny, it’s got action, it’s got satire—like a drive-in B Movie of the past made with A-list movie sensibilities. Yes! Nazis from the moon! But so much more!
What I was most pleasantly surprised by was the awesome amount of social commentary and political humor in this movie. The opening scene of the movie you have a moon landing, and then immediately the lander spouts banners. . .and it’s a campaign stunt. Hilarious.
With the film coming from an international filmmaking crew (the director, Timo Vuorensola, is Finnish, and the film was shot in Germany and Australia with an international cast), it took some pretty broad swipes at American politics. At one point an American politician is using what was essentially Nazi propaganda. I actually emailed the director and got a great response for what he was trying to do:
“Rather than satirizing American politics, my intention was to talk about the direction the whole political landscape is heading towards, also in Europe. Some of the rhetorics we hear politicians using nowadays all over the world are not that far away from Göbbels’ speeches in 30’s. What I’m saying there is that economic crisis of the 30’s is not much unlike the one we are going through now, and it has always been good grounds for all kind of fascistic politics to arise. So, we need to listen carefully the rhetorics our politicans are spitting on us.
I’m concerned of the rise of the far right, in US and in Europe. In Finland, the “True Finns” party won big in the elections, and same is happening all around. The fact that we have a president (in the film) who has a close resemblance to a certain ex vice-presidential candidate is purely coincidental 🙂 “
Pretty deep for a film with space Nazis, huh?
RS: I’m not usually one who goes for political commentary in a film, because usually it comes across preachy, uninteresting and pointless, I’m watching this movie because first and foremost I want to be entertained, THEN if you have a message and you get convey it through means of entertainment, I’m on board with it… Which is something this movie did masterfully- I caught myself staring at the screen, mouth agape, at how brash and how comical it was, a fact that may slow down or speed up it’s American release, depending on who sees it.
But social commentary and political tomfoolery aside, the film is actually a well-crafted and artistic endeavor; Skillfully shot, acted and paced. Now- nobody is going to be winning any oscars from their rolls as Moon Nazi-Propagandist turned hero, or African-American Model turned Aryan… but everyone used their tools in compliment to each other to tell the story that they were trying to tell. I came into this movie as much for the “camp” as I did for the concept and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s a fine line between cheesy and crappy, and not once did they cross it.
The movie was also chalk full of brilliant satire and homage… another fine line to tread before your film becomes “Scary Movie” or “Naked Gun”. But, what was refreshing in this case, was the use of their homage to further character and story- for example: at one point a character is brainwashed into becoming a nazi, and to illustrate his struggle with that fact, they homage Dr. Strangelove’s incessant struggle to keep from heil-ing Hitler.
CB: I think comparison to Strangleove is spot-on, and I’d compare to Naked Gun not in a tonal sense but in terms of how much fun I had. But the movies this reminded me most of were Evil Dead II and Machete, though less violent, etc. A PG-13 sci-fi instead of a R-rated zombie horror or Robert Rodriguez ultra-violence romp.
RS: Another example (and my personal favorite homage in the film) is when they introduce the president’s campaign manager through the use of a shot for shot re-enactment of the internet famous scene from Downfall, where Hitler kicks all but his senior officers out of the room to yell at them. (you know the one, it’s been re-translated a thousand times).
CB: OMG. I plotzed when they did that. Not only is that basically my favorite internet meme EVAR, but this was done exceedingly well. You know those terrible movies like “Meet the Spartans” or “Superhero Movie” where it was just terrible pop culture references out of context that didn’t work? This is not like that. I saw this with my brother, who has never seen a “Hitler reacts to…” video before, and he just thought it was cheesy overacting and liked it for its own sake. When I explained to him the joke, he dug it even more. That was kind of the general audience reaction, too. Everyone was laughing, but half of us were laughing really hard. Because it worked on both levels and fit in organically with the storytelling, it didn’t matter if you got it or not. Awesome job.
RS: THERE IS SO MUCH MORE I WANT TO TALK ABOUT! But, am gonna end my thoughts here, so as not to spoil the moment….
All in all, I adored this film! I laughed, I cheered, I fell in love with a nazi (she was a good guy in the end, calm down), and I watched the moon explode.
CB: Spoiler alert, please. Sheesh. And for the record, I met that actress at SXSW. She is just as cute in person and TINY. I could’ve put her in a backpack and carried her around Empire Strikes Back style (Luke and Yoda or Chewie and 3PO, take your pick). And that final moon battle with the different ethnic spaceships? It had some of the best gags in there. A great poke at the Finns, too.
Coming soon to a theater near you? Maybe. While it’s been picked up for US Distribution, there is no firm release date yet. Sadness, I know. They’ve got to be feeling the pressure, as they are actively going after people downloading the film through video-sharing sites. I have a solution: Let’s get this bad boy in theaters!!!
But until then, don’t let the space Nazis get you, and keep watching the skies!