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carlschirwing -> RE: Apollo 18 (SPOILER HEAVY) (8/9/2011 11:42:47 PM)
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I first got excited for Apollo 18 after the disappointment I'd felt after watching a trailer where Apollo 11's crew were sent up to the moon with secret instructions to investigate an alien crash site once the TV signal had been lost/cut. That film looked amazing until Michael Bay gave it an overdose of Bay-hem. It was such a good idea and for it to be the latest offering of the Transformers series was very upsetting. I was so happy when I saw that someone else had had a similar idea. Sure, it wasn't Apollo 11's crew that were going up but an additional Apollo mission we didn't know about. That in itself leads to questions but I had hoped that they'd be answered.
They weren't.
There is just no explanation as to why the mission even went ahead. Why Apollo 18 was secret but the other 6 since Apollo 11 have been publicised? Why would the American's go after answers to the Russians problems? Surely the russians themselves would have sent their own guys up to investigate.
Obviously, this is the point in the 'Found Footage' genre. It's meant to stir up some kind of conspiracy theory in order to get us talking about the possibilities but while most "FF" films lack answers or explanation, the footage we see is normally entertaining, interesting and captivating enough to make us WANT to talk about the film afterwards. Apollo 18 just didn't do that. I personally hated the 3 man crew. Sure, I understand that all Apollo missions were 3 man crews but I'd have accepted that technology had changed and allowed for an extra man or two to be aboard at least to give the guy left behind in orbit something to do. Instead, he repeated the same tired attempts to reach the surface crew before the final few scenes where he showed a little emotion but it wasn't soon enough to allow us to care for his fate. The 3 man crew worked for Apollo 11 but that was a different film where the three actors were always together, never alone.
The symptoms of infection were also unclear. At times he seemed to be himself and in lots of pain. Other times he seemed possessed. Then he'd go back to sanity again and would attempt to destroy the aliens in the shuttle. We never really knew what he was going to do. Unpredictability can be good... but this wasn't.
The best thing I can say is that the actors did the best job they could with poor material. A lot of credit to the set design and camera work. The feeling of space and the moon was very effective and, at times, claustrophobic. The writing and direction, sadly, was not up to scratch and we have yet another candidate for the "I Wish I'd Made" shelf... except this time, it's on there because I'd have made it better.
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