First Man (2018)

There were 17 missions named Apollo.  In addition to these, there were 12 Gemini missions, all in low-Earth orbit, all as a way of testing what would be needed for the lunar missions.  There have been all sorts of movies made, like Apollo 13.  Other motion pictures, such as Hidden Figures, have brought the support staff to our attention.   This isn’t even getting into miniseries and books.

It occurred to me while watching First Man that it‘s impossible to capture all of it in one movie.  In fact, the movie left a lot of it out, focusing on Neil Armstrong.  It caught me off guard.  Then, I remembered what the name of the movie was.  A movie called First Man should focus on Neil Armstrong.

The movie starts in 1961 with Armstrong testing an X-15.  Upon attempting reentry, he bounces off the atmosphere, but is able to get everything under control and return safely to the ground.  Regardless, he finds himself grounded.  He’s distracted, and with good reason.  His 2-year-old daughter is being treated for a brain tumor.  No one can do anything and it’s weighing on him.

The movie moves forward to major events, starting with his applying for the Gemini project.  Throughout, there are major historical events, like the Soviets beating America to several milestones.  Several fellow astronauts die, which doesn’t sit well with his wife, Janet.  (It’s not easy to see her husband and father of their two children go into space, knowing how many unknowns there are.)

Being that this is based on historical events, I’m not going to worry about spoilers so much.  The movie doesn’t rely on any sort of shock value, nor does it play up any sense of tension.  Plus, Armstrong lived until 2012.  Saying that he makes it back to Earth isn’t ruining any part of the experience.

It’s somewhat difficult to get my head around the scope of it all.  The movie does convey that people didn’t make it home safely.  Apollo 1 didn’t launch due to an electrical fire, killing all three occupants of the craft.  Wives have to deal with the reality of their husbands not coming home.  Even when everything goes right, it’s not over until they walk through the door.

There is also a muted feel to the movie.  There are arguments, but it’s not uncomfortable.  There is excitement, but it’s not overdone.  There’s a very even pace and tone throughout.  I’m not sure that it’s necessarily a bad thing, but it’s not good, either.  It seemed like the movie was stripped down to just the facts.  I will say that there was a decent flow to the movie.  It seemed long, but it didn’t seem boring or jerky.

I’m not sure that any one project could do all the space missions justice.  Even to focus on one mission, like Apollo 11, would have to cover a lot of ground, including all the research that went into it and all of the people that were involved.  Even a miniseries would be hard pressed.

There is a value in watching it, though.  I could see people of high-school and college age watching it.  It would be interesting to see the opinion of those that lived though the 1960s and know more about it.  As I’ve indicated, I’m sure that there’s a lot that was left out.

IMDb page

The Last Man on the Moon (2014)

The Last Man on the Moon (2014)

Everyone’s heard of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.  They were the first two people to walk on the in that order.  You may not know the name Eugene Cernan.  Of the twelve people to have gone to the moon, he was the last person to leave.  He was the one to turn off the proverbial lights.  I hadn’t heard of him until this documentary showed up on Netflix.  I actually found it around the time of his death earlier this year.  I’m not sure why I held off on watching it until last night.

The documentary covers his life, starting with him joining the Navy when he was 22.   He was eventually selected for the Gemini program, which dealt with low Earth orbit.  He then joined the Apollo program, which was about getting to the moon.  He was on Apollo 10, which was a test run for Aldrin and Armstrong.  It wasn’t until Apollo 17 that Cernan got his chance to set foot on our only natural satellite.

I’ve always had a fascination with going into space.  It seems kind of depressing to think that there’s this entire universe out there and we haven’t sent someone past the lunar orbit.  Sure, we’ve sent probes to Mars.  We’ve even sent two machines out past our solar system.  I hate to think that we won’t actually send someone to another star within my lifetime.

I think that may have been why I put off watching the documentary.  Cernan was the last person to leave the moon.  When visiting a launch site, he regrets coming.  The site had been unused for decades and he didn’t want to remember the Apollo missions that way.

The documentary is partially clips like that, showing Cernan with friends or at a rodeo.  There are also historical clips, like the module going down towards the moon or coming back.  There are also interviews with Cernan, his family and from other people who worked in the space program.

Cernan admits that being an astronaut wasn’t great for his family life.  The training was intense and the trip to the moon was three days  each way.  It was difficult on his wife to have to sit there hoping everything went right when we were doing something that was entirely new.  There was always a sense that something catastrophic might happen.  In fact, catastrophic things did happen.  Equipment didn’t always work.  Human error was always a possibility.  Being an astronaut wasn’t that easy.  I imagine it still isn’t.

IMDb page

Apollo 18

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

 

I’ve been getting codes for free movies at Redbox.  Because of their limited selection, I’ve been renting movies that I might not otherwise rent.  (I’ve been hoping to rent Thor and Tron: Legacy, but they’re always out of Thor and I’ve only seen Tron: Legacy in Blu-Ray.)  Apollo 18 is one of those movies that I had seen advertised when it first came out.  I kind of knew that it was going to be one of those movies that I might only end up watching if I could get it for free.

In case you missed the coming attractions, no, this isn’t the fifth sequel to Apollo 13.  Officially, there were 17 Apollo missions.  Unofficially, there was an 18th mission to the moon that was never mentioned to the public.  The movie is comprised of ‘footage’ that was ‘leaked’ through a Web site, lunartruth.com.  (It’s like if Wikileaks had done their own version of The Blair Witch Project.)

Three astronauts are selected to go into space for a top-secret mission.  They’re to place equipment on the moon, most likely to spy on the Russians or something.  That’s the only reason they can think of for the secrecy.  They begin to question their mission when they find a Russian lunar module and a dead Russian.  Mission control is somewhat reserved with the details, which leads the astronauts to start asking questions among themselves.

Things go from bad to worse.  First, their recording devices are on the fritz.  Also, communication is patchy right before it goes out completely.  Also, their flag disappears and their lunar rover is flipped on its side.  It looks like it’s going to be one of those days.

As you may have guessed from this and other reviews, there is a similarity to The Blair Witch Project.  It’s presented as found footage edited together and presented to the public, in this case as a conspiracy.  It’s like, “Hey!   Guess what we didn’t know about.”

The three main actors are Warren Christie as Ben Anderson, Ryan Robins as John Grey and Lloyd Owen as Nate Walker.  Ryan Robbins was the only one I recognized, being that I watch Falling Skies and Sanctuary.  Warren Christie is from Alphas, which I don’t watch.  I don’t think Lloyd Owen was in anything that I would have watched, either.

I don’t want to say that the actors aren’t good, but they’re not huge names.  Nonrecognizability does add something to it.  Watching Robbins, I was constantly like, “Oh…  It’s that guy from Sanctuary again.”  With the other two, it was easier to believe that they were really two guys up on the moon.  (Grey stays in orbit while Walker and Anderson are on the moon, so I was alternating between belief and disbelief.)

This is one of those movies that’s more enjoyable the less you think about it.  I had several issues, mostly technical.  First, there’s no radio lag.  It’s conceivable that it was edited out, but it takes light about two seconds to get from the moon to Earth or from the Earth to the moon.  Thus, there should have been a four-second lag as the astronauts sent a message, then waited for a response.

Also, while on the moon, the astronauts don’t seem to be affected by the lower gravity.  The moon is one-sixth the mass of Earth.  This means that you weigh a sixth of what you would on the Earth, meaning you can jump higher and lift more mass than you would be able to on Earth.  I also remember from a Myth Busters episode that there was a reason actual astronauts walk funny on the moon.

It seemed like the astronauts were putting up their reflective masks a lot.  On Earth, we have an atmosphere to reflect, deflect, absorb or otherwise deal with harmful rays.  On the moon, no such protection exists, which is why the astronauts have a mirror over their faces.  It’s to keep out as much of that harmful radiation as possible.

There are a few other issues I had, but I don’t want to get into it.  I don’t want to completely ruin the experience for you, just in case you’re still set on watching the movie.  Personally, I kind of regret renting it, even though it was free.  I didn’t care much for the Blair Witch Project and I feel like I should have known that this would have been the same.  I’m pretty good about picking movies that I like.  This is one of the few cases where I let the coming attractions get the better of me.  If you’re not into found-footage movies, you might want to skip Apollo 18.

Official Site

Apollo 18 (2011) - Official Trailer [HD]