Apollo 18

 

 

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After seeing all the hype over this movie on tv, I was eagerly awaiting its release on DVD. It's an interesting premise - the final Apollo mission that "never" happened according to government sources. Or did it?? It documents, with actual film footage from previous missions, obviously, the moon landing of Apollo 18, the subsequent discovery of extra-terrestrial life, and the resulting implication on both the astronauts and their lives. It wasn't exactly what I had hoped for ... not enough action scenes, a lot of talking augmented with the footage of the moon landing. I'm afraid I wouldn't watch it again. I'm sure the actors did the best job with what little they had to work with. Perhaps it was better viewed on the big movie screen.

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).

The reviews for this movie had been pretty poor, though their official website had some fairly interesting looking trailers to add to the mix. I rather enjoyed the style and execution and found it consistent throughout. So if you do not enjoy vintage NASA footage missions, you'll quickly get annoyed and move onto better movies.

One commented on a plot hole about how the footage got leaked considering the storyline does not readily make that valid. At the end of the movie, they show a link to a website called Lunar Truth [...] which is an offshoot of the movie portraying consipracy theories about the Moon missions, aliens and so forth. They make a mention about an intelligence modification in the fitted cameras that were not visible to operators and required maintenance by specially trained pers. It seemed to imply that it allowed remote monitoring of footage.

This provided site and movie are linked, they even have this fake terminal server that allows you to see leaked intelligence photos from a government server. Hence this movie makes strong attempts at getting seen as something official and not fiction. That is, until you hit the standard disclaimer at the end of the credits. In the end, its entertaining to play along and immerse yourself in this conspiracy.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Blair Witch in Space
I must admit that I found the premise of the movie interesting but it's execution left a lot to be desired. Read more

Published 4 months ago by James F. Major

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