Iron Sky

A B-Movie is classified as a film of lower budget, and lower expectations, that does not fall into an established genre. The term “B-Movie” originates from the times of cinematic double features. The B Movie (as opposed to the A Movie) played second, as most viewers would leave after the first film. It’s the same idea as B-Sides in music, pieces that didn’t make the cut of the album, but not total wastes. To call Iron Sky a B-Movie seems dishonest. At face value it appears everyone except the writers took this film seriously. Certainly campy, with slapstick humor that would appeal to the younger crowds, but with content involving Nazi’s, racial cleansing, and some racism that passes the point of tongue in cheek.

“All presidents who start a war in their first term get re-elected.”

The concept of Iron Sky is that after the defeat of the Nazi’s in 1945, a large group left earth, and colonized the dark side of the moon. There, they’ve been advancing their technology (albeit steampunk style and mechanical in nature), and are plotting their return to Earth. The film opens in the not-too-distant future, wherein the United States has sent a manned space flight to the moon. This stirs up the beehive, and with the new technology carried by the astronauts, the Nazi’s can now bring their master plan to reality and invade the planet in a quest for world domination (again.)

“The moonblitzkrieg shall begin!”

It sounds like a stretch, but bear with me: where this film presented ironically, as a suspense or science fiction horror film, it may actually be good. It’s not. It’s supposed to be an action-comedy, with slapstick humor and irreverence. Rather than rest on laurels of clever writing and situational humor and use immature humor to push the story forward in a case of need, Iron Sky languishes on low hanging fruit. Some movies have done this and made it work ironically, like Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, the first few Scary Movie films, or Austin Powers; here it feels lazy.

Furthermore, with a budget of just over $9.6 million, the film only recouped about $8 million during its theatrical run, with very lackluster home media sales. There are supposedly talks of not only a sequel, but also a prequel in the works! The devotion to the idea is admirable, but completely unfounded. This movie is so poorly executed; it doesn’t even make the full circle to cult classic cinema. It’s just bad. At first, the viewer feels like they’re about to view a train wreck of a horrible film, by the halfway point, I just felt embarrassed for those involved. The film even has a few name actors in it, although admittedly all B and C list celebrities. The male lead, Christopher Kirby (who plays Astronaut Washington), has been in Star Wars Episode III, two of the Matrix franchise, and Daybreakers. Götz Otto, who plays the Nazi leader, has appeared in everything from a James Bond film (Tomorrow Never Dies), to last years Cloud Atlas and Schindler’s List, and Udo Kier has over 200 films on his resume! These are not no-name up-and-comers!

“Do it, Moon Corporal”

The really important thing to take away from this film is that anyone can make a movie. Based on this film, literally anyone. Iron Sky had a limited release in the United States in July of 2012, and hit DVD and Blu-ray home media on October 2nd 2012. Most recently it is making its rounds on Netflix instant and Amazon Instant video services. While not a long sit, it is one I can’t recommend in good conscience, even ironically.