Apollo 18
Year: 2011
Director: Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego
Stars: Warren Christie, Lloyd Owen, Ryan Robbins
Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment / Dimension Films
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 87 Mins
Plot Synopsis:
When I heard the news and the trailers surrounding this film, I was actually going to see “Apollo 18” in theaters. All those plans change, when every reviews were hammering this film. Now the film has hit DVD and Blu-ray.
This found footage film centers around December of 1974. Two astronauts are sent a secret mission, by the U.S. Department of Defense. The two are sent to the moon on what they think is going to be a routine mission to shoot footage of the moon with a 16mm camera. But soon, the astronauts will realize that they are not alone. While NASA denies that all the footage is real, most think that this is the reason that there hasn’t been any more moon landings.
Film Review:
Man, talk about what a wasted opportunity. That’s what I thought after watching “Apollo 18” The direction was there, but talk about a very dull screenplay and uninteresting characters. Director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego does a very good job with making the film fit the time period that it takes place. He does that, by filming it in16 mm. It helps sell the fact that it’s a found footage film and gives the film its authentic feel for the time period, in which the film takes place. You want to that to sell the fact that it came from the sixties and that was done here. The acting here was dull for most of the fillm until the last fifteen minutes. For that, I’m not faulting Lopez-Gallego that much. It’s not his fault that the characters, in the screenplay don’t have any personality. Would I like to see him have the chance to direct another film? Yes. I truly think that he can make a good film, but he needs to chose his projects wisely.
Now comes the part of the review, where I begin to hyperventilate about the abysmal screenplay. This awful screenplay was written by Brian Miller. This screenplay had no life to it. One of the things that makes it awful, there were no personality to the characters. What made found footages films like “Cloverfield”, ”The Blair Witch Project” and “Paranormal Activity” work was the fact the characters in those film had personality and you were invested in the characters. Here I didn’t care about these characters. The characters felt like they came out of a boring documentary. If I don’t care about the characters, then the found footage gimmick doesn’t work. The other problem that makes this screenplay awful. There’s too much needless scenes and less scares. For the first hour of the film, I was just flat out bored. There is no attempt to build any tension to get you interested. By the time the action starts, you just don’t care anymore about this film. I don’t want to see that, unless your trying to build character development. There was none of that here, as it was just characters talking to kill time. That’s what makes some films like this boring.
Blu-Ray Extras
First on the disc is the film’s audio commentary track with director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego and the film’s editor Patrick Lussier. This was a good commentary track, considering that I didn‘t like the film. Both of them go into the production and editing of this film and how some of it was rushed. The other thing that I liked about, you get stories about the pre-production, the actual filming of the film and the long post production that this film had. It made the track interesting and made up for the lack of behind the scenes featurette. Overall, a nice commentary track.
After the commentary track, there are four alternate endings and some deleted and extended scenes.
Final Summary
“Apollo 18” was very disappointing movie that really needed better character development and action to keep the film moving. Instead, it’s movie that does nothing for almost the entire time, which leads to the film’s downfall. I put the blame with screenwriter, as the director really tried his best the material at hand.
Review Rating: Two Stars
Review Rating: Two Stars
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