Movie Review: Iron Sky (Blu-ray, 2012)

When Finnish musician Timo Vuorensola isn’t hammering out tunes for his band Älymystö he’s making movies. Iron Sky is his first feature and from what I’ve seen he seems to have a delightfully oddball sense of humor and possible career as a successful director. Any movie about Nazi’s in space has gotta be gold, right?

It’s present day in America, and we’re doing what we’ve done numerous times over the past 50 years – explore the moon. This time it’s a little different though after the discovery of a base built by Nazis in the 40’s two astronauts have their mission complicated by space-roaming soldiers from the “Fourth Reich”. One of the astronauts, James Washington (Christopher Kirby) survives the attack and flees. He’s eventually captured by General Wolfgang Kortzfleisch (Udo Kier, Andy Warhol’s Dracula); Washington is forced to help the Nazi’s out as they venture back to earth.



Washington, an African-American, is turned white by one of the Nazi mad doctors so he can blend in with his Aryan brothers as they cause havoc on Earth. Iron Sky serves up a ton of jokes, but unfortunately most don’t hit the mark. The American president in the movie is played by Sarah Palin look-alike Stephanie Paul. Of course there are several gags here but even they fall flat. Some better writing and attention to characters would have helped immensely because this really is a fun idea.

The saving grace for Iron Sky is without a doubt the fantastic digital FX. There is some eye-popping stuff here. One of the main invasion sequences looked kind of like a mini-Independence Day. Vuorensola has some tools here, just not the most vital, a story.

The extra features on the disc are pretty healthy as we get to see a lot of behind-the-scenes footage. You get to see the actors playing against the green screen most the time but it’s enjoyable enough because most are action sequences. As for the look of the disc, the Blu-ray is gorgeous and sounds fairly good.

Vuorensola’s next picture could be the next big cult classic, but Iron Sky is what appears to be a part of his learning the art of filmmaking. This one is good for maybe a rental.