Apollo 18 [DVD]

Depending on the expectations you bring to Apollo 18 it could be anything from 1 to 5 stars. My expectations were not overly high and I enjoyed it - but I don't think that for me it had any repeat-viewing appeal (i.e. I can watch a good movie three or four times in a few years). What they get absolutely right is the feeling that this is created from actual footage of a lunar landing. The various effects and distortions feel absolutely authentic, and overall the film does look like it takes place on the moon. The voice acting from mission control is equally perfect - and much of the acting does look like fly on the wall reality. With no spoilers - its also worth mentioning that Apollo 18 does not over do it's scares, relying mostly on brief glimpses, which for me worked well - but it's a courageous thing for a horror movie to do as a large part of the audience may well be hoping for a bigger pay off. For me what didn't work so well was that I don't feel the scares were exploited enough. I know it sounds like I'm contradicting myself - but I mean that not enough of a plot ever really developed to give the scary bits enough context. For example there was little sense of time running out even though the astronauts by definition had a finite supply of oxygen for example. There was also no sense that the alien presence had much intelligence even though for example flags were destroyed, suggesting some resentment of human presence on the moon. With more of a well defined plot, I think this would be a classic, but as it is, it is a very interesting piece of film making that may or may not float your boat.

Could have been better, filmed in the same style as Blair Witch - not my cup of tea. Good concept, poor explanation of 70's Cold War mindset to noughties folk why a secret moon shot was needed and obviously underbudget production. Maybe it was deliberately badly made as a tax dodge like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. If you saw/see Mel Brooks, The Producers, you'll understand that line of thought.

The film was actually better than I feared it was going to be (after reading all of the negative reviews and such) but I found it pretty authentic in it's portrayal of a moon mission gone wrong (granted, I've never done any serious studying of any actual moon mission films, so enthusiasts of moon mission imagery will probably be able to pick this thing apart till the cows come home, but for the average viewer, I found it pretty real, I mean, at least the space suits didn't look like someone's mom had sewn them together with some bed sheets, which is always a plus in my book).

But that being said, this is not a film for people looking for a non-stop action rush, this is a slower burn type of film, in the same vain as the recent, Paranormal Activity movies, but in space.

So if you like stuff to do with the moon landings and have a thing for revisionist history/conspiracy theories, then this film is your cup of tea (or, Tang, as it were, and if you didn't get that reference, then you're not as big a moon mission aficionado as you may have thought you were before you started to read this review '

***SPOILER ALERT*** (go and watch the film, then come back and read this as I think you'll find it quite interestingly compelling)

Okay, so here's my BIG overall problem with this film (and correct me if I'm wrong here) but what we're watching is supposedly, "Found Footage" taken during this ill fated mission, film footage, not video sent back to mission control on earth, cameras with actual film cartridges in them that have to be developed before they can be run through a projector to be watched (keeping in mind that this was way before digital camera technology came into existence).

So here's my problem; how, if the film from the moon cameras (you know, the ones showing Ben meandering about the moon's surface trying to avoid his demented colleague and the rock spider/crab creatures, in his mad attempt to reach the Russian space ship and escape the lunar horror of it all) is still actually in the cameras (as we never see Ben getting the film from them, during his frantic flight for survival) and then what film Ben did manage to bring with him in the Russian space craft was blown up when the Russian craft and the moon obiter crashed, then how are we watching any of this footage???

Let's see, we have some footage stranded on the moon, and the rest has been atomized in the collision between the two ships in lunar orbit, and even if, let's say for the sake of argument, that another mission went back to the moon, better prepared to fight off the, "Moon Mites", then all that they would have is the stuff taken on the moon's surface and nothing taken from inside the space ships because that has been lost in the collision of the two ships in orbit.

So there you have the BIGGEST deterrent to the possible believability of this movie, the one thing that they shot themselves in the foot with, the lack of any explanation as to how any surviving footage could have, well, made it's way back to earth to be, "Leaked" to the internet in the first place (had they been using video cameras everywhere that sent video images and sound, back to mission control then sure, this would have been plausible, but the fact that at one point Ben is gathering up film cartages to be taken back to earth (before everything went, "Loopy") and we never see him bring said film cartridges to the Russian ship at the end (and like I mentioned, even if he had, the ship collides with the lunar orbiter in orbit around the moon) so anyway you slice it, the film could never have made it back to Earth.

Also, really, rock creatures, hasn't that been done to death, but I guess that is the only way they could try and add a, "Chill" factor to the films end by indicating that lots of moon rocks have made their way to earth during the previous 17 Apollo missions and could in fact be rock creatures as well (but the stupid flaw in this theory is that it is indicated that the rocks that are these creatures, are from a recent impact site, which would indicate that the rock creatures were not indigenous to the moon but travelled there on this meteor or asteroid piece of space junk, which would also mean that they weren't present during the other 17 Apollo missions if this impact site was recent).