Iron
Sky - The Director's Cut
(2002/E1 Blu-ray w/DVD Steelbook Edition)
Picture:
A/B- Sound: A/B- Extras: B+ Film: C+
Nazis
from space terrorize earth in Timo Vuorensola's Iron
Sky -
seen here in its full glory in an exclusive directors cut, complete
with collectible steel book packaging and a very cool 32-page book
about the conceptual art. The film itself is twenty minutes longer
than its initial release and is complete with new visual effects, new
music from Laibach, and tons
of new politically incorrect humor.
At
the end of World War 2, a secret Nazi space program evaded
destruction by fleeing to the Dark Side of the Moon. During their 70
years of secrecy, the Nazis constructed a gigantic space fortress
with a massive armada of flying saucers. When African American
astronaut James Washington (Christopher Kirby) accidentally discovers
the base, The Moon Fuhrer (Udo Kier) has decided that this is the
right time to retake Earth and starts to prepare the invasion. Two
Nazi officers, Klaus Adler (Gotz Otto) and the gorgeous Renate
Richter (Julia Dietze), travel to Earth to prepare the invasion.
Soon, American skies are full of flying saucers and start firing upon
earth. It's time for the President (played by Sarah Paul who
remarkably resembles Sarah Palin) to take a stand in her own best
interests and fights back.
This
movie reminds me a little bit of Machete,
Snakes
on a Plane
and even The
Human Centipede
as an exploitation film that tries a little too hard to be remembered
as cult
and worked better as a two minute trailer than a nearly two hour long
film. After about the first twenty minutes, the concept gets old and
the characters increasingly hard to relate to. It almost would have
worked better as a Saturday
Night Live
gag.
I
did find myself in awe over the visual effects, which for the low
budget look pretty good on Blu-ray. The massive Nazi armada is
massive in scope and the design of the spaceships is very similar to
Invasion
of the Body Snatchers,
with that 50s movie-era feel. With the exception of the Nazi
commanders, the soldiers generally look like Stormtroopers from Star
Wars
or the Nazis seen in Zack Snyder's Sucker
Punch,
which I didn't mind too much. Aside from its excellent look though,
the film is over the top and doesn't quite succeed in its execution.
At times, it takes a triumph of the will to make it through to the
end of the film
The
1080p high definition transfer is crisp and clear with a 2:35:1
aspect ratio and is complemented by a DTS-HD 5.1 lossless Master
Audio track. The DVD has a 5.1 Dolby Digital Track and you can
definitely tell a difference in sound clarity between the two as well
as in the anamorphically enhanced DVD image that is also weaker.
There are both German and English language versions of the film too.
Extras include a Making of Documentary (90 minutes), Photo Gallery,
and Teasers.
-
James Harland Lockhart V
