I didn't think May could get any weirder after Strippers Vs Werewolves but now we have this, Iron Sky, which could easily be renamed Space Nazis From The Future. Created by Finnish duo Timo Vuorensola and Johanna Sinisalo, this initially sceptical reviewer went into this with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, prepared for the worst, but was pleasantly surprised by what turned out to be an above average low budget science-fiction actioner with enough comedy smarts to make it entertaining for more than just the pretty pictures.
After the end of World War II, the Nazis are forced to secretly flee to the dark side of the moon after being defeated and there they have holed up for seventy years, building a massive complex and hundreds of space warships, just waiting for the right time to unleash hell on the earth all over again. 2018 appeared to be the year and it is here that we meet our cast of characters.
On a routine moon visit, the Americans accidentally land a little too close to the previously secret Nazi stronghold for comfort and so begins a tale of a young, pretty Nazi teacher and a young American on board the spaceship bound for the moon for a modelling job. Through a collection of unbelievable plot devices (c'mon, we are talking about Moon Nazis, remember, it's not that incredible a stretch of the imagination) these two fall in love, though they take their own sweet time doing it.
Production wise, this is something of an achievement. With a budget of less that $7.5m, the cgi scenes are outstanding and at times, rival any blockbuster with budgets ten or twenty times what they have to play with here. The acting, though often cheesy and sometimes wanting, is mostly great as well, with lead performances from Julia Dietze, Götz Otto and a great cameo from king of the weird, Udo Kier.
There are few moral lessons to be learnt here, except to say that Nazis are bad, but the American government of the very near future are probably only slightly less repellent. This is all about the bangs and whistles and this part of the movie will have sci-fi lovers gasping, even if the plot and dialogue would be more suited to one of the less celebrated episodes of an early Farscape season.
But this is fun, through and through. The men look cool and the women look hot, so those that prefer their eye candy less pixelated and more curvy will also be catered for. If anything lets the whole thing down, it is the shoddy script, which given it is tied up in the most farcical of adventures, could have been a little less dour. I was occasionally reminded of Starship Troopers but with Nazis instead of bugs as the focus of the our heroes' vitriol. Either way, both make great use of big guns and uniforms (if you like that type of thing).
Altogether a fun ninety minutes that will never leave you kicking your heels for too long for your next action fix as one will be along any minute. It's not award winning drama, so don't expect much in this department, just know that you will have a good time and you won't have to think too much about it.