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Iron Sky: The Second World War was a long and arduous time for the whole world back between 1939 to 1945, and it’s all about to happen again.
The year is 2018 and the Nazis are still alive and are living on the dark side of the moon, and they’re now planning to take over the Earth once again.
Iron Sky begins with two astronauts touching down on the moon for the first successful landing in many decades. As they begin to explore the surface, one walks too far and discovers a huge crater… containing a secret underground facility. Before he can take it all in, a Nazi pops up in a gasmask and plants a bullet in his head. This leaves James Washington (Christopher Kirby) as the only, and also the first black astronaut, left on the moon.
Naturally, he’s captured and taken to the man who wants to be the new Fuhrer, Klaus Adler (Götz Otto), who in turn is in a relationship with schoolteacher Renate Richter (played by French hottie, Julia Dietze). Yes, a French woman playing a German one, even though she has a German surname. Confused? You won’t be until after this week’s episode of Soap!. Ermm…
So, having captured Washington, they use his mobile phone to combine with their very outdated technology to perfect a weapon against the Earth. Yes, a mobile phone is going to defeat the Earth completely, or rather it would if it didn’t run out of power. Hence, Klaus Adler assumes command, going above the head of the current Fuhrer, Wolfgang Kortzfleisch (Udo Kier), and heads for our blue/green planet, with a view to get more mobiles and inadvenrtently end up taking over the campaign to get the President (Stephanie Paul, acting very Sarah Palin-esque) re-elected.
A couple of observations about Iron Sky: 17 minutes in, as the female President’s campaign is going down the pan and her campaign manager Vivian Wagner (Peta Sergeant) needs to scream out loud, we get a spoof of the famous scene from Downfall which was also spoofed in a zillion Youtube memes.
There’s also a great line from the trailer which is brilliant there, but sadly due to dodgy editing, it loses its impact in the film proper. After the President is informed that the baddies are Nazis, and they’re from the moon, she says in a well-framed moment in the trailer: “Shit, this just keeps getting better and better!”, but in the film, she says those words while a befuddled Secretary of Defence looks on, thus ruining the impact of a great line.
The cast all do a decent job, with Wagner’s outfits getting more and more outlandish as the film continues, but overall, while Iron Sky is a movie with one of my favourite trailers of the year and it has a fantastic premise, it’s one which sadly doesn’t pan out as far as you’d like.
It’s also one of those films which has come out in the cinema on a Friday and gone straight to Blu-ray and DVD the following Monday. Having watched it, I can see why. It passes 90 minutes, but that’s about it.
Presented in 2.35:1, the picture is sharp and detailed and does great justice to the immense amount of CGI on view.
Audio-wise, the film is presented in DTS 5.1 HD Master Audio and does a decent job of gunfire, special effects, etc. without being any kind of demo disc.
The extras are as follows:
- Making Of (16:28): Lots of on-set work in progress footage, prior to the CGI being added in. There’s a large selection of scenes so that’s worth a watch for those who really enjoyed the film.
- Promos: Five short clips from the film of around two minutes each. Not quite sure what these are for, really. I’d rather have deleted scenes.
- Phooto Gallery (4:04): Nicely detailed images set to atmospheric music.
- Teaser (1:45): Well, it does what it says on the tin but it’s not a patch on the main trailer for the film.
Unfortunately, the presentation of the disc leaves a lot to be desired. The main menu is fine, with the film’s incidental music playing over clips, but there are no subtitles – bar English ones during German dialogue – and a worst-I’ve-ever-seen-number-of-chapters with just TEN! And barely any extras either.
Iron Sky is out now on Blu-ray and DVD.
|
FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
6 10 8 2 |
| OVERALL | 6.5 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 93 minutes
Year: 2011
Distributor: Revolver Entertainment
Cat no: REVD2884
Date of release: March 19th 2012
Chapters: 12
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: DTS 5.1 HD Master Audio
Languages: English
Subtitles: None
Widescreen: 2.35:1
Disc Format: BD50
Director: Timo Vuorensola
Producers: Oliver Damian, Tero Kaukomaa and Samuli Torssonen
Screenplay: Michael Kalesniko (from an original story by Johanna Sinisalo, and original concept by Jarmo Puskala)
Music: Laibach
Cast:
Renate Richter: Julia Dietze
Vivian Wagner: Peta Sergeant
Klaus Adler: Götz Otto
James Washington: Christopher Kirby
President of the United States: Stephanie Paul
Wolfgang Kortzfleisch: Udo Kier
Doktor Richter: Tilo Prückner
Secretary of Defence: Michael Cullen
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.