Iron Sky Movie Review

If memory serves me right, I saw the trailer for Iron Sky (2012) on  YouTube.com a few months before it's actual release. It looked hilarious and fun and I put it on my movie list right away. That was the last I heard about it until it appeared on NetFlix Instant Play some time later. At first I couldn't figure out how I'd missed what I thought would be a blockbuster of some sort, but it turns out that it was a Finnish-German-Australian foreign film and hadn't had a very wide release in the US. No wonder I missed it.

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 seventy years of utter secrecy, the Nazis construct a gigantic space fortress with a massive armada of flying saucers. When American astronaut James Washington (Christopher Kirby) puts down his Lunar Lander a bit too close to the secret Nazi base, the Moon Führer Wolfgang Kortzfleisch (Udo Kier) decides the glorious moment of retaking the Earth has arrived sooner than expected. Two Nazi officers, ruthless Klaus Adler (Götz Otto) and idealistic Renate Richter (Julia Dietze), travel to Earth to prepare the invasion and meet with the United States President (Stephanie Paul). As the Nazis ready the Earth for invasion, the Moon Nazi UFO armada darkens the skies ready to strike at the unprepared Earth.

Iron Sky was much more bizarre than I expected. I wanted to see a silly action movie with a ridiculous and funny set of villains. While invading Moon Nazis are certainly silly enough to make even the nations they are targeting laugh, the humor was fairly intelligently written and well executed. There are three things that stood out most to me about Iron Sky; the references to other movies, the CGI effects, and the political mocking of the US.

Iron Sky referenced several other Nazi films and some sci-fi films. 2001: A Space Odyssey and Independence Day come to mind. There is a scene where The President's assistant yells at her subordinates in nearly a shot-for-shot reference to the scene in Downfall that became a hugely popular online meme involving a re-dub of Hitler ranting at his key officers. There's also a reference to Dr. Strangelove where James Washington is wheeled out in a wheelchair and tries to keep himself from saluting the Führer. Some of the movies referenced are foreign films making the reference and humor the scene is striving for may be lost on some American viewers who haven't seen them.

While I do enjoy foreign films, I haven't come across many that had particularly good CGI effects. Even though I loved Pan's Labyrinth, some of the CGI was subpar. The space battles in Iron Sky were impressive. The space ships were detailed and looked great. Scenes on the moon involved a lot of green screen with CGI rendered backgrounds. The camera work intentionally tried to captivate the old filming style that was used in during World War II. While you could endlessly argue about the physics behind several scenes, it's the detail of the scenes that makes them pretty solid. Just forget the physics and enjoy the fun action sequences!

Iron Sky is a sci-fi political comedy. How often to do see that genre mash up? Interesting were the numerous political jokes about The United States from the perspective of other countries. It's not just making fun of republicans or democrats; it's making fun of American politics on the whole. The unnamed President of the United States is an amalgamation of several US political figures. She has the Texas drawl of President W. Bush, the campaign slogan and posters of President Obama, the appearance and ditzy mannerisms of Governor Sara Palin, along with several negative American stereotypes. Of course Madam President is thrilled by the Moon Nazi invasion because "Presidents who start wars always get reelected. I thought I was going to have to bomb Australia or something." The movie overtly suggests that Americans have been guilty of the Nazi-like notion of taking over other countries by force for the sake of making said countries better. I didn't particularly like that suggestion, but I honestly can't think of a good argument against it. Iron Sky takes many jabs at American politics, but does so with witty and intelligent humor.

Iron Sky is full of some good and bad qualities. The story was full of holes, but it doesn't take itself so seriously that it's a problem; the acting was pretty bad in some parts, but the depiction of the Nazis is admirable; a good portion of the script was unimpressive, but it had some fairly intelligent humor and satire incorporated into it; the ending was pretty weak, but still remained fun. The humor is pretty dark at times, but still funny. I'd compare the humor style to that of  Dr. Strangelove. The concept is great, the movie is just okay, and the humor pretty good. There's a notable amount of profanity and F-bombs which I didn't appreciate, it seemed to be there only to earn a higher movie rating. If you can ignore the profanity, it's a great political satire that is worth seeing, but not quite good enough to own a copy for multiple viewings unless you really get a kick out of the idea of Moon Nazis.

Here's the trailer for Iron Sky. Don't tell me that doesn't look at least a little bit fun.

What's your favorite fictional group of Nazis? Space Nazis? Zombie Nazis? HYDRA from Captain America?  I've seen a couple different rendition of the go-to villain organization. Which one is your favorite? Comment below and tell me why!

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Movie Review

Nazi Germany and World War II history has become a point historical interest for me in the past couple of years. I took the opportunity to visit the site of the Dachau concentration camp during a trip to Germany one year; it was a good experience, though not a particularly happy one. Such as been my reaction about movies set during the holocaust; good, but not happy. I actually heard about The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008) at the Dachau concentration camp, and wanted to see it after my harrowing and humbling experience there.

Eight-year-old Bruno (Asa Butterfield) lives in prewar Germany with his sister Gretel (Amber Beattie), his mother Elsa (Vera Farmiga), and his high ranking SS officer father Ralf (David Thewlis). They move from their affluent lifestyle and home to a spot out in the country where Bruno’s father is to take command of an adjacent prison camp. Bruno Is curious about what he believes to be a farm, where the farmers wear striped pajamas; his parents try to keep him away from what is actually the prison camp. But being the ever curious and bright-eyed child that he is, Bruno ventures out in the trees behind his house until he comes upon a barbed wire fence with a boy on the other side wearing the same striped pajamas he saw the “farmers” wearing. This Jewish boy in the striped pajamas is named Shmuel (Jack Scanlon). Despite warnings to Bruno from his family other SS soldiers that frequent his house, Bruno and Shmuel become friends; neither one understanding that this is a prison camp for Jews awaiting extermination.

There are a lot of holocaust movies that have been made; it’s universally agreed that the Nazi’s inhumanity to man was a bad thing. It has almost become a cliché that Nazis are unquestionable villains; kind of the go-to organization when you need a pre-established group of reprobates that everyone already hates. They were used this way in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and in the upcoming movie Iron Sky (2012). In The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, the Nazi’s are certainly depicted in an unflattering light, but also shown that they are still human. They had families, they had hopes and dreams, and they wanted to live comfortably and safely. I think this was shown best through Bruno’s mother; while she was anti-Semitic, her primary concerns were her family and how the war might affect them. Even she was horror-stricken when she learned what her husband was doing to the Jews at the camp, and it put a serious strain on their marriage.

While this is a holocaust movie of sorts, it’s fairly unique. This is because it was Nazi Germany and the Holocaust seen through the eyes of an eight-year-old boy. Most young children do not understand political alignments, religious affiliations, or the idea of war. Bruno simply saw his father go to the office every morning and return in the evening; just like most children do. There were great political movements that Bruno witnessed, but couldn’t grasp how they might affect him personally. Shmuel told Bruno that he was in the camp because he was different, but even Shmuel didn’t understand why being Jewish was grounds for imprisonment. We, the viewers, know what certain events mean and their repercussions; but since everything is seen through a child’s eyes, the movie doesn’t always develop these events to be meaningful to Bruno. We see Bruno’s sister posting pictures of The Führer and newspaper clippings of Nazi victories on her wall. We see black smoke billowing from the dreaded crematorium. We see Nazi soldiers dragging Jews off screen to yell at them (or worse). Bruno sees all this, too, but has no concept of what it all means. It’s not as though the movie is trying to hide these things, but rather to look at them through the eyes of an innocent child.

Interestingly, all the actors in this movie speak with crisp British accents, not with German accents or subtitles. I think that overall it strongly represents the formality and business-like attitudes of the Nazis, which is the aspect of the war that Bruno sees. It’s all charts, plans, organization, numbers, promotions, and uniforms. It seemed odd at first, but I think it was more effective to present the Nazis this way, given the context and perspective of the film.

As you may suspect, as a holocaust film it has a tragic ending. It’s very sad and powerful, but the movie itself is good. It is not a watered down holocaust movie, but it is a less graphically intense one. I think this is a very important part of history that we should not allow to slip into obscurity. I worry these horrific events may not be communicated well enough to the younger generation. While dramatic and tragic, I think The Boy in the Striped Pajamas would be a good, safe movie to introduce the ideas of the holocaust and genocide to a younger audience (maybe 10-years and up), and be followed up with a discussion about the evils that transpired during World War II.