Movie Review: ‘Apollo 18’

Remember the 1995 classic movie, “Apollo 13,” with Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon and the rest of those renowned actors?

If not, here’s a very abbreviated recap: three American astronauts go on a manned trip to the moon, things go wrong, they have to come home. This plot was essentially copied by “Apollo 18,” which is no sequel to the classic. But “Apollo 18” will certainly not earn any Academy Awards like the nine nominations and two Oscars that “13” won. In fact, it would have been better suited as a Sci-Fi Channel made-for-TV movie.

gcsunade | gcsunade.com

Courtesy of The Weinstein Company

Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego’s creation of “Apollo 18” in the image of “Paranormal Activity” was ill-fated ever since its conception. The trailers didn’t even look decent, even though they still gave away a majority of the plot. The movie not only took the plot of “Apollo 13,” but also stole the cinematic style of “Paranormal Activity” and the dedication to historical accuracy from “How to Train Your Dragon.”

To its credit, “Apollo 18” did not steal its whole story. It added little rock-crab-aliens that inexplicably wanted to wipe out all of the astronauts and their equipment. Also, not to forget, there are dead zombie-like Cosmonauts.

One of my chief concerns about the worst movie I have seen this year also involves its claim of historical accuracy. Obviously, no confidential NASA mission was ever sent to the moon and aborted because of attacking rock-crabs. But the movie claims that it did happen, and it starts off by showing vintage-looking footage of families with dated clothes on before the astronauts were sent up to the moon. But, when they were shot up into space, suddenly the imaging became HD-quality. I wasn’t aware that HD technology existed in 1970.

The bottom line: don’t go watch “Apollo 18.” Don’t even watch it when it comes out on Redbox. There is not a single redeeming factor to mention about it. I never thought that I would say this about any movie, but watching “Shark Night 3D” would have been a much more enjoyable experience than seeing “Apollo 18.”

Posted by Ryan Del Campo on Sep 8 2011. Filed under Features, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.