It is little wonder that every screening of Iron Sky is being heavily attended in the UK after taking 5 years to complete. The production of this film is an interesting story in itself with the first teaser trailer being produced in 2006 during fund raising attempts to help get the movie completed. There were further teasers in 2008 and 2010 before the movie was premiered at the Berlinale in February this year to many negative reviews, something this long awaited but this dull is not easy to forgive, but the legions of loyal faithful have crammed the cinemas assuring this film will earn its cult status for many years to come.
Iron Sky just isn’t funny enough, it’s quite a simple solution but one that seems to have eluded the screenwriters, hiring a comedy writer or advisor would have helped with delivery and variation of the gags. The real solution to this problem would have been not to film it as a straight comedy, there is no need to ruin the already intriguing and comical premise of Nazi’s from the Moon by making them even more farcical than that already sounds. Iron Sky should have been an action adventure with moments of comedy like Indiana Jones but sadly it’s not and sadly it fails.
While the film isn’t terrible it lacks any real punch. After revealing the central idea of the Nazi’s hideout on the moon fairly early on the story ambles slowly to a lacklustre climax. This being said there is one central performance that proves how different this film could have been if the script had been slightly more serious. Götz Otto plays Klaus Adler, a Nazi officer who plans to dethrone the current Führer Wolfgang Kortzfleisch played by an underused Udo Kier. Otto plays the role with such energy and swagger that his character becomes the only likeable one in the entire film. Every other part is played with an awkward comedic angle, especially Julia Dietze’s Renate Richter, Klaus’s love interest that does not know the violent history of the Nazi’s Dietze looks very much out of her depth. The rest of the cast show nothing more than overzealous performances trying desperately to inject humour into the proceedings as the Nazi’s begin their conquest of Earth.
Iron Sky does prove that there is no need for astronomical budgets when creating special effects driven movies, with a seemingly paltry $7.5million compared to Battleship’s $200million the makers of which should hang their head in shame. The effects do not suffer from the lack of finance, in fact the movie is at its best when the Nazi flying saucers are marauding through space and engaging with a number of Earth’s ‘secret’ military space craft.
It’s possible that the makers of Iron Sky tried to do too much with the movie and ended up skimming over the details in all sections. We learn very little about the Nazi’s moon hideout and their return to Earth only briefly opens a window for satirical barbs at the American Republican party and it head mother bear Sarah Palin in particular. There should have been a tighter focus but the film is full of holes and subsequently feels a lot longer than it is. There are sequels in the works, let’s hope the team manage more entertainment in future.