By ALEXANDER PECHA
Arts Editor
Iron Sky drew me in with its idea alone: Nazis from the moon. An idea so infused with a raw dose of awesome I couldn’t help but be sucked in like a…well, sucker. My excitement was further cemented when I looked up the trailer to the movie on YouTube. There were explosions! Nazis! And Sarah Palin? Either way this movie had all the elements to be an amazing movie, which is why I am doubly disappointed that they dropped the ball so hard it left an impact crater.
Iron Sky follows four characters primarily: the African American male model named James Washington (Christopher Kirby) who gets captured by the Nazis during a moon mission; a Nazi schoolteacher named Renate Richter (Julia Dietze); and a president who is an obvious carbon copy of Sarah Palin (Stephaine Paul), who isn’t actually ever given a name and finally her scheming campaign manager Vivian Wagner (Peta Sergeant). The plot deals with how Washington and Richter get swept up in the Moon Nazi plan to conquer the Earth, which Not-Sarah-Palin and her campaign manager Vivian think will help her get re-elected. However, before the actual Nazi attack on Earth happens, a lot of runtime is dedicated to Richter and her sort-of husband Klaus Adler becoming ghost writers for Not-Sarah-Palin’s campaign. Yeah, the plot is overly complicated for what Iron Sky is trying to be.
The plot of Iron Sky, as previously mentioned, is far too complicated for what it is. In fact, the filmmakers seemed much more interested in making a political comedy movie than Nazi invasion movie.
The amount of stabs at US and world politics is ridiculous, and what’s worse is that a lot of the humor has been done or just is flat out not funny (Republicans are Nazis, hur hur funny).
It’s almost like there’s two different movies in one with Iron Sky: there’s the movie I came for with crazy space Nazis attacking the Earth, and then there’s a movie ripping on politics and is everything I don’t need in my stupidly awesome Nazi movie.
This fact is really nailed in because the movie does occasionally remember what it is and gives us the ridiculous fun of space Nazis. There are two really good sequences involving a battle in New York City and a space battle that I won’t spoil that are really awesome, but they’re way too short and immediately get ruined by more of the political parody.
However, I can’t help but sing the praises for in the movie is the artistic direction used in the camera work and color of the movie. The Nazi base and their space ships use a dull grey color-palette that brings to mind the old B -movies and give the Nazis a distinct atmosphere. Meanwhile the somewhat futuristic New York and other places on Earth are shot as to seem fast paced, high tech and almost something out of an Apple ad.
In the same vein the design of the Nazis’ equipment and uniforms is really interesting, while you can argue that they had a starting point due to the actual historical Nazis they definitely added a few of their own ideas.
The average Nazi soldiers are gas-mask-wearing goons and the officers wear overly elaborate uniforms. At the same time the Nazi space vehicles are delightful to look at. The Nazis have two space ships, a bulky small ship that conjures up images of the old Nazi Panzer tanks while also invoking older UFO saucers; their second ships are large blimp-looking ships that carry the smaller ships inside them. Both of these vehicles are a ton of fun to look at and seeing them in action in the climax is amazing, though not enough to save the movie.
I so wanted to love this movie, I love stupidly over the top ideas and Nazis from the moon certainly fits that requirement. The movie even has moments of that, especially towards the end, but it’s so marred by this almost mini-movie that is all about poking fun at politics and reminding you that Sarah Palin is an idiot.
I wanted to be envoloped by Iron Sky’s over-the-top premise, but it couldn’t meet me half way and instead threw a mediocre political comedy at me with occasional moments of Nazi killing action. If you’re willing to look past the huge missteps or simply enjoy some mediocre-at-best political commentary then you might enjoy this movie,.Otherwise you may want to look elsewhere to fill that Nazi action-movie itch.
