I THOROUGHLY ENJOYED IT!
Iron Sky could not have impressed me more. First off, it's a film by the people for the people, one of the new clever things that have come from the Internet that is genuinely cool. On the face of it it seems like a cheesy ridiculous modern B-Movie, and it is but it's so much more, it's actually a kind of camouflage. Camouflage of the cool variety. That said, some times you need to be ridiculous to point out the ridiculous. Iron Sky is one of the best satires out there, it honours Dr. Stranglove by not just adding it's tribute but for taking their concept one step further. It points out peoples obvious modern flaws and ideas, 'mobile phones in space' is probably something most kids would take a while to work out wouldn't work, but then the ideas that Astronauts could be chosen on their looks and colour doesn't sound unfeasible, even though it is - but then is it? Remember W. Bush going over to Iraq to give the troops a huge Christmas turkey that turned out later to be a fake - the solders had the same lousy food they'd had the whole year but boy did it look good in the papers. This is called propaganda - something the Nazi's where pretty good at (The American media isn't too bad at it either). This is explored in the film by getting a designer in to help them with their new image, the Sarah Palin character as president isn't just a bit of fun for comic effect here. Sarah Palin vs Nazis is a ridiculous concept because their views are not that dissimilar but tell someone you're anti-Nazi and you're on to a winner. This film is so sly it's no wonder many have overlooked its undertones. It's basically saying if the Nazi's did come back they'd be very little for them to do, fascism has moved on and is wearing it's own camouflage these days. Anti-American and anti-Nazi are two similar ways of thinking these days, Its what the rest of the world thinks anyway. Timo Vuorensola is a clever guy, if you look at his past work this is quite typical. I know loads of people who had no idea what this film is really about and i think it's quite sad that Satire seems to be a dying art, hopefully films like this will keep it alive but then many people didn't get Four Lions either and us Brits invented satire. Getting Liabach to do the soundtrack was also an inspired decision - more reason to see that it's a political wolf in sheep's clothing. I thoroughly enjoyed it, the SFX aren't too shabby either!
Anthony Lawrie, Rotton Tomatoes
GLORIOUSLY POLICALLY INCORRECT SCI-FI
This gloriously politically incorrect sci-fi romp works on the premise that a secret Nazi programme relocated to the Moon at the end of the war to prepare for a return to Earth and the creation of the Fourth Reich.It flags when it comes to the script, but succeeds in terms of special-effects and comic-book action.The space battle scenes are impressive, Julia Dietze is sexy and demure as the Nazi schoolteacher sent to Earth and there are genuinely funny moments.
Mark Adams, Mirror
TERRIFIC EFFECTS!
Stylishly made with some terrific effects, Iron Sky also draws on everything from Star Wars to Dr Strangelove, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and a Sarah Palin-style US President in Stephanie Paul...
Graham Young, Birmingam Post
CREATIVELY CREAZY MOVIE!
Let's face it: it's Nazis from the Moon invading Earth in flying saucers, if you're expecting anything other than abject absurdity, you're in the wrong movie.
Tim Martian, The Mercury
THE SPACE BATTLES DO LOOK COOL!
'Heil Kortzfleisch!'
So I think we all know right from the start this film is not to be taken seriously in any means or fashion in the slightest. A completely farcical UFO B-movie that is a mix of classic old 40's/50's sci-fi and complete schlock, any sci-fi or horror that involves the Nazi's tends to be trashy nonsense right?
Only this film isn't entirely a cheap tasteless excuse for smut in smart uniforms oh no, its actually a pretty neat little film that actually looks pretty good. Its almost in black and white for a lot of the Nazi sections, a virtual grey scale of dull rusty metal bolted together with lots of sturdy fat rivets, thick 50's looking sci-fi cables and lots of impressive steel gantries for the kraut officers to leer from triumphantly.
I have to admit I wasn't expecting the earth here (no pun intended) but the CGI effects on most of the space battles, spaceships and Moon shenanigans all look quite crisp and clean with clearly much effort involved. The spacecraft are all your classic UFO shapes (with nice WWII influence) but one has to admit they do look kinda cool with the German kit on them. There is also a really nice steampunk, cogs n gears, 'Wolfenstein' vibe going on throughout the German Moon based sequences which really works well, kinda reminded me a little of Del Toro's work in 'Hellboy 2'.
Plot aside (seeing as there are plot holes you could fly a Zeppelin through) the film is good fun and does what you would expect with plenty of other invasion films copied in certain sequences. The acting is poor but Götz Otto makes an impressive display as the Fuhrer wannabe 'Klaus Adler', he snarls his way through his dialog in wonderful form really enjoying the villainy, and of course who can forget Udo Kier as the new Fuhrer. I believe Kier is in the dictionary under the word 'cult'.
For some reason I did expect more blood n guts in this, not extreme but it just begged for more claret to flow and maybe some Nazi experimentation, say Nazi space mutants or Nazi killer space robots made with human parts etc...I dunno maybe that's just me and my warped mind. I guess ze crazy German scientist 'Doktor Richter' gave the impression that might happen, nice character, complete stereotype but nice.
A combination of political satire and spoof mixed with B-movie UFO's and space Nazi's, the best part being its not trashy and the space battles do look cool in a 'Starship Troopers' kind of way. I also liked the US president being a woman who looked suspiciously like Sarah Palin. Pure trashy genius methinks, yet such a simple idea.
Phil Hubbs
I LOVE THE CONCEPT!
MegaD
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
kkrulec
