Iron Sky – Review

I was going to start this review with a comment on how you wait for a Nazi invasion film to come along… but then realised that we do not wait at all for these types of films. It seems that there is nearly always some form of low budget release featuring everybody’s favourite pesky Aryans. Iron Sky is the first of a Nazi double feature that I have just had the pleasure of watching. (review of the second one to follow).

The film starts with a moon landing in the year 2018. It is a publicity stunt to promote the re-election bid for the US president who happens to look and sound very like Sarah Palin. The astronauts do not have long to enjoy the moment as they are shocked to find a swastika-shaped moon base in a giant crater. One of the astronauts is killed. The other, the first black man on the moon as we are reminded several times by the President’s PR company, is injured by suspicious-looking moon men.

It turns out that in the dying days of the Second World War the Nazis fled Earth and set up a moon base on the dark side of the moon. Ever since then they have been planning for the day when they can return to Earth as conquerors and bring about the start of the new thousand-year Reich. Among the moon dwellers is the perfect Aryan couple (97% pure after testing). One is the second in command with ambitions for the top job. The other, a school teacher, believes that Nazis are good and gentle people that will return to Earth in peace, not war.

The only thing holding the invasion force on the moon is a lack of computing power. They have developed weapons but need a supercomputer to power them. They find the necessary processing power in the mobile phone the astronaut carried with him. An expeditionary force is dispatched to New York to obtain further computers to power the invasion. The leaders get sidelined as they are introduced to the US president and help her run for re-election. The invasion will have to wait. Or will it??

This is an extraordinary film. Originally conceived in 2006 a trailer was produced and previewed at the Cannes film festival in an effort to gain finance. It took until 2012 to complete the film and get it released in cinemas. The film exceeds all expectations. The first thing you notice is the high production values. For a film on a limited budget, it looks great. A lot of work has clearly gone into the design. It is great to see low budget films with impressive special effects that put studio blockbusters costing twenty times Iron Sky to shame.

The film features a relatively unknown cast (to me anyway). Their performances are all generally good with a good deal of hamming it up from the Nazis. There is a lot of humour in the story and the cast delivers this totally straight, making the film an even better experience. A couple of nice touches are when “Heil Hitler” is used even though someone else is now in charge and when they medically ‘change’ the black astronaut to make him more pure and acceptable. Entertaining stuff.

Overall an entertaining film that delivers everything you need in a Nazis in space drama. recommended.

About
Latest Posts

John McArthur

Editor-in-Chief at Moviescramble. A Fan of all things cinematic with a love of Film Noir, Sci-Fi and Julia Roberts in Notting Hill. He hopes to grow up some day.