Apollo 18 (2011)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

So much average

I'll tell you why so serious

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This review contains the spoiler of telling you why they went to the moon, but not the ending.The reason why no one knew about this mission was because it was top secret. 2 astronauts land on the moon near its south pole. The movie cleverly combines actual film footage of NASA with their own track over and their own film. They were careful enough to use side lighting to create the long shadows seen in the NASA films. I appreciate it when they do their homework. The cameras have been put in place. This avoids much of that sea sick motion you get from the other reality (translate:cheap) type movies.Now the reason why they really went there was to check on the Russians who have landed a LEM (looks like a diving bell) on the moon. The crew was not informed about this so they really panicked when they found another set of footprints. What we know:1)The Russian is dead, apparently killed. 2) There is a strange rock that seems to move on its own, but we don't see it move. 3) There is a strange crater/shaft made from different rock which is at the heart of the problem. 4) There are communication issues and there appears to be strange going-ons outside the LEM that suggests visitors.Now I hate hand held reality movies. My finger is on the fast forward button more than a lab rat pressing for cheese. But this one held my interest. I wanted to see what was causing all the grief, even if it was just for a fleeting moment and later they did resort to the herky-jerky camera. I was too far along at the time. I wonder how this lines up with "The Dark Side of the Moon?"

Apollo 18 (2011) Directed by Gonzalo Lopez Gallego, and written by Brian Miller, Is a clever concept, A mocumentary about the last unreported Lunar landing. Spoiler Alert ahead, I Intend to talk about the film, What I liked; It very much captured the technology of the period, the film ratio was pure period nostalgia. Did we detect Super 8 on some of the home movies? Nice attention to detail. All the footage at the start mimicked the images we recall, they were uncannily set up in the studio, so as to intimate that the original footage we recall, might have thus been staged as well, but I digress.No, there is a far more sinister plot about, The movie goes to great length to introduce us to the three Astronauts chosen for this top secret mission, Warren Christie, Lloyd Owen and Ryan Robbins play Ben, Nate and John. Good old, all American Team players. Ben and Nate would land on the Moon, and John would orbit in the return module. By the time we get to the first, "Wawazat?" The movie was already in decline.OK, there was some degree of originality in the nature of the threat. Here's that spoiler alert, Keyword; Moonrocks. A mineral,slash Biological organism that wants the moon for its own. For an alien race, it seemed to understand human biology, enough to invade and infect a person, Ben is infected, Nate won't abandon him. It's all a DOD cover up. And now we know why we don;t go to the Moon anymore.Worse yet, there may be many of these phony Rock impersonators running amok down here on Mother Earth. Downside of this movie; Standard Sci fi cliché's take one; Electronic surveillance cameras will go all static rather then reveal the monsters appearance.In truth, the monster here never fully reveals itself nor it's motive; Sometimes its just a pointy rock, other times it seems like a biological parasite, and to top off the confusion, It leaves rather odd looking footprints. So how does this film rate, Fair to average, a clever idea pushed further than they knew what to do with. Seven out of Ten "Moonrock" stones, I mean Stars.

The movie is not perfect. I liked much more the sci-fi side than the horror side. I found it more believable than most of the sci-fi movies (space odyssey and interstellar included). It was very intriguing the idea of using old cameras, the editing with true footage worked great... even if the space in real capsules was much less than what is shown in the movie: a forgivable poetic license :)The horror part was ... horrible :) To some extent it was even unnecessary. IMHO it should have worked better a "fight" between Russians and Americans about some possible mine of extremely rare metals like cerium and neodymium. The value of hundred billions dollars could have justified the race.Rocky monsters are quite difficult to buy. For any viewer, I mean...7/10

This movie began with a good concept/story, it's just the reason why they never went back that ruined it!!!! I mean really?! It was just stupid!!!! I was hoping it would've been something more scary or interesting! Huge opportunity missed to make this movie a massive hit! Don't get me wrong, this movie was kinda good, it's just that type of movie you'd only watch once, and never again. All I'm saying is that the cause of everything messing up wasn't really interesting or scary enough, when I saw that Russian spacecraft I was expecting something which involved other humans messing things up or at least scarier aliens!!