A handful of early reviews for the Nazi UFO invasion comedy, Iron Sky, have started to surface online. The movie is not released theatrically until next month, so it’s too early yet to judge whether or not the following reviews are representative of the hundreds still to pour in, or, indeed, if the reviewers’ cutting comments will have any bearing on the movie’s box-office returns. At this point, though, things aren’t looking too promising.
Here are some review snapshots (for the full reviews, click the website titles in bold red)...
Perhaps the harshest review comes from The Guardian’s Andrew Pulver, who gives the film just two stars out of five and writes:
“Proper comedy is a rare gift, and all the fancy, fanboy-titillating CGI effects in the world can't make up for it... No one on show has what you would call natural comic timing – a difficulty reinforced by the fact that half the cast aren't speaking their native language... [Directors] Vuorensola and Torssonen can console themselves with the likelihood that the remake rights will be worth a bomb; I've no doubt a queue is already forming. Theirs is an idea that Hollywood could do much better with.”
London’s Time Out Online also could muster only two stars for the movie, saying “The lingering sense is one of missed opportunities: any movie featuring Nazis from the moon should be an easy win. Iron Sky just proves that even the dumbest idea needs a smart mind behind it.”
David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter compares the movie to both Starship Troopers and Galaxy Quest, but notes that, “while the plotting is mostly sound enough, the dialogue would have required several more polishes to put Iron Sky in the league of either of those movies,” adding, “the real problem is that the jokes are just not there.”
Screen Daily’s Mark Adams, meanwhile, is more positive in his review of Iron Sky, saying “fans of the genre will lap up the film,” which has “some delicious moments” and “some truly impressive special effects.”
Robert Beams of What Culture! was also somewhat complimentary:
“There are visual puns, gloriously over-designed Nazi spaceships and even autobahns on the surface of the moon. Every frame is full of jokes – some of them highly inspired and many of them less so (in fact some don’t work at all). But the gag-rate is so high that you’re bound to chuckle at least once every few minutes even if you don’t surrender yourself to it entirely.”
