Iron Sky Review

Movie: Iron Sky
By: Orlok666
Date: June 15, 2012

A Finnish überfilm

Nazis seem to be popping up everywhere again -on film at least. If they’re not coming from the center of the earth, or have an agenda of creating superhumans through corpses, they have some moon base to plan a next attack. From the land of thousand lakes comes the latter, a dark sci-fi comedy in which moon Nazis plan to take over the earth. Put on Wagner’s "Die Walküre: The Ride of the Valkyries" and read on!

The plot

In the last moments of World War II, a secret Nazi space program evaded destruction by fleeing to the Dark Side of the Moon. During 70 years of utter secrecy, the Nazis construct a gigantic space fortress with a massive armada of flying saucers. Two Nazi officers, ruthless Klaus Adler (Götz Otto) and idealistic Renate Richter (Julia Dietze), travel to Earth to prepare the invasion. Their visit to earth has a big impact on the moon Nazi mission but also on the lives on earth.

Anfang

"Iron Sky" gained a lot of interest with its wacky concept and great VFX reel on Cannes 2008 film market. But despite the buzz and some occasional news it was still doubtful if an actual film would see the light of day. Eventually in 2010 the film went into production, much with help of the online community that helped funding the film via sites like Wreckamovie and the "Iron Sky" webshop.

The film was lensed in Germany -which is quite extraordinary because the film doesn ’t shy away from Nazi symbols- and Australia and with cult actor Udo Kier as the Mond Führer (moon leader) and some awesome teasers it gained even more attraction from press and geeks alike.

Production

The story sounds like the plot of a B-movie and that’s exactly what you can expect: a fun-filled, over-the-top film that knows what the pulp loving public wants. When an astronaut gets caught on the moon, he unwilling sets the wheels in motion for an attack on earth.

The plot is loosely tied together and lacks some coherence but there is enough visual splendor be awed by and Jokes range from parodies of the bunker scene of "Der Untergang", references to popular and political culture and immense long German commander names. For film buffs there are enough references to other sci-fi and war films to keep them quiet for a while, or boasting their knowledge.
The moon base is shaped as a swastika and the Nazi technology is still pompous, clunky and big but to present standards outdated. Also the president of the United States is a Sarah Palin lookalike and her campaign manager finds perfect use for the Nazi rhetoric of Klaus and Renate; making the president a bigger Nazi than the ones residing on the moon.

Revolt in style

As to be expected from a film that has a heavy visual effects background, all of the visuals and designs look neat. The moon Nazis have big and heavy machinery working from them being totally ignorant of the development of technology on earth. Everything also looks very detailed and well thought. I really loved the mix of WWII, Steampunk and some more contemporary sci-fi elements in this film; it’s a clash of styles you might think that it would not work but in fact they enhance each other.
Industrial band Laibach delivered the score which is filled with Wagner-esque leitmotifs and their score succeeds in merging the pompous classical music with the more pounding industrial elements but feels sometimes a bit overdone in some comedic scenes.

Götterdämmerung?

All in all I immensely enjoyed this sci-fi comedy. It has this geeky B-movie vibe all over and if you take the not that well-wrought scenario for granted you’re in for a treat. As more often with such films the acting is over the top and the story jumps from one scene to another but you can feel the fun and dedication the makers put into it. Some ideas in the film are so absurd that it wonders me that they got away with it. But they did and the result is an entertaining, original film. There are talks about a prequel and sequel so I guess the Nazis are here -or the moon for that matter- to stay.

Official site: Iron Sky