Now Playing: Apollo 18 (2011)

There is one movie that has been taunting me for months. I'm not sure why, but it just kept getting delayed. Today, Apollo 18 finally came out. If you don't believe me about its delays, just look at the poster right there. It has a date on it of 3-4-11! Anyways, all that matters is that it's out and I went to see it tonight!

Actually, another odd thing about this film is that there was apparently an embargo on all reviews until its day of release. Also, it has the absurd claim of being "found footage" from the top secret Apollo 18 mission. I'll get into why that's extra absurd after the jump.


The premise of this film is more than just a story. We're supposed to believe that this is "found footage" of the Apollo mission that supposedly never happened. For now, let's just go with it. It is claimed that originally Apollo missions 18, 19 & 20 were canceled due to budgetary concerns. However, after Apollo 17, the next mission was restarted and it was to be top secret. Something to do with setting up spy equipment on the moon to watch the Russians. The astronauts jump at the chance to get their chance to go to the moon. What they find up there though, is not at all what they expected.

Lots of moon-walking going on!

You'll forgive me for not being able to give you the names of the characters. Partly because of the review embargo, the IMDB page had no actors listed at all until just a day ago, and it doesn't even have them all now. While many, including my friends, believed that the embargo was to prevent bad reviews from getting out before the opening day (meaning it was probably horrible), I believe it was something different. In the past we've had a number of films come seemingly out of nowhere and they've become huge cult successes. Films like The Blair Witch Project and more recently Paranormal Activity. I think the filmmakers were trying to create a buzz like that for this movie, because it was really pretty good!

It's also possible they were trying to maintain as much of the suspension of disbelief as they could. This movie has a difficult curve to it. It wants you to invest in it and buy this story about a lost secret mission to the moon. The biggest problem is though that they have to use modern day actors. In fact, I recognized 2 of the 3 main actors as men who are currently on hit TV shows. Warren Christie from Alphas and Ryan Robbins from Sanctuary. The third actor, Lloyd Owen, plays the Captain of the team and is one of the two men on the moon, the other being Warren Christie's character. Ryan Robbins is the crew member who says on the orbiter. At any rate, I thought they all did a really good job.

That footprint doesn't look like the ones they're leaving behind...

It's this suspension of disbelief that I battled for most of the movie. I really liked what I was seeing, and there were a few jump scares that really got me. It's just hard to accept these completely recognizable actors as really being in the 70s. The film even goes all out so that the whole thing looks like old grainy washed out footage. It never lets go of that look and uses a number of different effects to make the footage look old. Don't get me wrong, the footage effects were really good, but always those guys I can see on TV right now were there. I'll admit, by the half way point I had sort of forgotten about it and was just along for the ride. Part of me wishes they had just said it was a new mission to go back, but then you wouldn't have any of the cool "old footage" look and those classic old looking suits and the rover and whatnot. Maybe it would have been easier to accept, but at the cost of all the character of the film.

That can't be good

While this wasn't the perfect movie, or the scariest film I've seen this year (still goes to Insidious) this was definitely a fun movie. If you like the kind of movie that makes you jump and is a little creepy, you'll probably like this one. The sci-fi element is a little tough to accept, but I found that over the course of the movie I had. At least to enough of an extent that it wasn't an issue anymore. The added factor of the old astronaut suits and really looking like it was footage from the same era as the other Apollo missions was pretty cool and gave it a uniqueness rarely seen in other films. Admittedly, it's a little heavy handed in telling you that it is old footage, but again it wasn't a big deal to me. So, overall I do think I'd recommend this movie. I had a fun time with it and it scared me a number of times too, which is a bonus. Check it out if you think this is your kind of thing.



EDIT: I scratched out the word "hit" when referencing the TV shows the actors are in. Even though I think they're pretty good and popular shows, I've actually had some complaints that I used the word "hit" so I've made the above alteration. I hope this appeases everyone.