12 to the Moon

Poster tagline: LAND ON THE MOON WITH THE INTREPID FIRST ASTRONAUTS!!! I didn't let myself be swayed by the terrible overseas reviews, but it’s still bad, man. I'm sort of used to the technical silliness (which zelvopyr mentions at length) in Golden Age sci-fi, so I condescendingly overlooked that the overload at launch only affects humans and not animals, that meteorites (i.e. polystyrene boulders) bounce like tennis balls when they hit the lunar surface, that there is a breathable atmosphere on the moon so you don't even need a glass on your helmet, etc. etc. (it would be a long story). What’s striking is that the 8 years younger Kubrick Odyssey is light years more technically sophisticated and without any nonsense. What I do appreciate, however, is that they made a certain effort to portray the psychological development of the characters. So we have 12 astronauts – each from a different country – and at least the friction between the representatives of Israel and Germany can shake us out of our lethargy (though the numbers are awfully wrong, the Israeli rebukes the German saying that that his country had killed one hundred thousand of his people). What I found stupid, on the other hand, is that the American gets the longest introduction, he’s the captain of course, with the look of a typical alpha male with sharply cut features and half a head taller than everyone else. I’m not surprised at all coming from a country where they can’t even distinguish between Russia, Croatia and the Czech Republic (see, for example, my recent experience listening to the commentary of Russia's Makarova's tennis match at the US Open). But that’s something you can overlook, but the film is so tedious, without pace or creative zest. The actors are all terrible, the discordant score used many times almost burned a hole in my head, and by about the 30th minute I was just praying for it to end, which doesn't happen often. Why 1*? For the fairly nice visuals of the moonscape, perhaps the wide-angle restored image played its part. (04.09.2014)