Nazis! On the Moon! In a swastika-shaped fortress! Building a monstrous super-weapon! Plotting to take over the world!
There’s an ageing Fuhrer (not that one), a ruthless Military Commander, an evil scientist, and his beautiful daughter, who thinks Nazism is all about love and brotherhood (oh yeah!).
Oh no! They’ve captured an astronaut. Mein Gott- He is a black man. ‘What is wrong with your skin?’, they ask him. They’re going to kill him.! But he’s not really an astronaut, he explains. He’s a model. He’s on the moon to put an election poster for the President! The President looks like Sarah Pailin.
The evil scientist looks like Albert Einstein.
What???
For the first half hour or so, there were no laughs from the audience, only occasional snorts of disbelief and plenty of puzzled expressions. Personally I could have done without the scene where the evil scientist turns the black man white with an Albinizer, and the poor man forces himself to give a Nazi salute. German humour, yeah?!
Things improve when we get back to earth, but the humour remains, shall we say broad. The United Nations delegates end up having a fight.
The ruthless US President has an even more ruthless Campaign Manager, she falls for the evil Nazi Commander. (Politicians are all basically Nazis, you see!). The Nice Lady Nazi falls for the whitened Black guy. And so on…..
The special effects, I have to say, are spectacular!. They are much too good for this cult comedy that IRON SKY is trying to be.
The final invasion and Space battle is genuinely exciting! The Evil Commander blasts a piece out of the moon to get a better shot at planet earth! But the Americans have an illegal super spaceship. So does everyone else except Finland. It’s name is the George W. Bush! (Ha Ha).
The main problem, though, is the Evil Nazi Commander. He is played absolutely straight, vicious, heroic, perversely charming, like the ultimate Bond movie villain. The joke is supposed to be that he’s way over the top however his character resists satire. He keeps on dragging IRON SKY down into genuine drama. As Woody Allen once said, ‘It’s hard to satirise a guy in shiny boots’.
Where am I? What’s going on? The ruthless Campaig Manager has become a spaceship Captain! Why the hell not! In a leather outfit straight out of Star Trek! Or possibly Mardi Gras.
IRON SKY is a big strange, entertaining mess of a movie. If you want to see it, you better hurry! When I was there, there were only 8 people in the audience, and two of them had free tickets!
© Peter Morrison
25th May, 2012
Tags: Sydney Movie Reviews- IRON SKY, Sydney Arts Guide, Peter Morrison.