Director: Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego
Starring: Warren Christie, LLoyd Owen, Ryan Robbins
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 88 minutes
Synopsis: Decades-old found footage reveals why NASA’s secret Apollo 18 mission ensured the US has never returned to the moon since.
Continuing the recent trend of ‘found footage’ films that was jump-started by 1999’s THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT’s huge box-office takings, Spanish Director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego makes his English language debut with this mockumentary film about a top secret mission to the moon. Opening with the usual ‘this is true/it really happened’ set up, the film follows three NASA astronauts, two with a mission on the moon and another monitoring their situation from above in their shuttle. The found-footage is edited together as their mission begins, and they document each step of their journey: from the opening interviews – in which they discuss their chance to live their dream – through saying goodbye to their families -who like the astronauts themselves, are unaware of the exact mission – to their voyage through space and the actual landing on the moon itself. Once there, they soon discover they are not alone and their basic mission of collecting more rock samples may just have been a ploy by NASA officials for a far more sinister mission.
The footage is a little annoying at first: the cinema screen is not used in the widescreen format it was designed for; but it’s a little flaw that you soon get used to and it’s understandable that Lopez-Gallego has created a design and aspect ratio of the decade from which it originates. The film really could have been ‘the Blair Witch in space’: it’s the same set-up with three actors, just in a different location, and much like that movie it has its moments. British actor Lloyd Owen’s Nathan Walker gives a suitably creepy performance (with the help of a little effective special make-up effects) as the film heads towards its climax.
Along with found-footage films recently released – such as THE LAST EXORCISM, QUARANTINE, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY – APOLLO 18 never hits the heights other films shot in the verite style. It has no spectacular set-pieces like CLOVERFIELD, or the ever-increasing suspense of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT or REC. It’s just another title in this genre that doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon, especially with upcoming projects THE TROLL HUNTER, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 and REC: APOCALYPSE. If you’re a fan of this type of filmmaking it may be right up your street but other than its location and setting, it adds nothing to the genre that we haven’t already seen before.
APOLLO 18 is released 2nd September 2011
