Wednesday, August 14, 2019

The Overlook Theatre Reviews: Iron Sky: The Coming Race


A follow-up to the film Iron Sky (2012) in which Nazis plan to take over the world after lying dormant in a secret military base on the moon.

5 of 7 viewers "Liked" "Iron Sky: The Coming Race" (2019, USA)
Creature reviews have been minimally altered in an attempt to maintain their voice:

KillDozer - "I love when a sequel outdoes its predecessor and Iron Sky 2 is a fun filled mix of Land of the Lost meets Star Wars with a dash of Jurassic World for good measure! Basically, it doesn't take itself seriously and is in on its own jokes. Iron Sky 2 manages to succeed where part one failed. This is a fun popcorn movie that should be enjoyed with friends. If you are in the mood for silly action-packed fun, look no further!" - 4 Stars

Huntress - "I haven't seen the first Iron Sky but I still went into the sequel pretty defensive, expecting a single-target barrage of jokes. And I couldn't have been more wrong. No one was safe from ridicule in Iron Sky: The Coming Race, whose caricatures weren't at all selective. This was 90 minutes of blind-siding situations and bizarre jokes. And somehow it worked!" - 3.5 Stars

Greyranger - "Packs in so much stuff that none of it is interesting. Nice Laibach tunes, anyway." - 2.5 Stars

Eddie the Gamer Ghoul - "Good! Stupid! Outrageous and something special! All in one and I couldn't ask for more. Both nothing and yet everything I expected at the same time. Jus' one last movie to watch dis year and my life is great!" - 4 Stars

Lord Battle - I discovered that Tom Green was playing a tech cult leader and despite hating most comedies (especially parodies) I somehow came into Iron Sky 2 excited. Five minutes into the film and I was already confused. The world-building seemed inauthentic/ironic like they were making fun of the blockbuster format but secretly love that format. If that's confusing wait till you see Iron Sky 2. The film feels like it was written by online polls that filled in all the script's nouns and adjectives like a Madlib puzzle. That said, I laughed a lot towards the end. The beginning was very rough and cult leader Tom Green was mostly boring." 😞 - 2.5 Stars

Math Mage - "There's a popular legend about the association between Nazis and the Occult. Historically, the connection is tenuous at best. but it makes for good storytelling. Nazi sorcerers searching for Atlantis with cyborg henchmen make great antagonists so the idea persists. Most of the occult trappings added to Nazis owe a lot to the Theosophic movement from the 1800's early 1900's. Specifically the idea of Atlantean survivors with magic/psychic powers. There's a lot of racism (especially antisemitism) associated with this belief system, so it's a good fit for Nazis and the makers of Iron Sky ran with this to build a plot for the sequel. Really. it's two separate movies: one grim tale of the last living humans clinging to life on a derelict moon base; the other a colorful adventure story about stealing the holy grail from lizard people in the Hollow Earth. There are some serious tone problems, and a lot of terribly dated humor (president Palin wasn't that funny in the first Iron Sky). A few great scenes are scattered through the film (the president of the United States jump kicking a T-Rex ridden by Hitler), but the film in between those scenes is an awkward mess of "cool" moments that aren't cool and jokes that aren't funny." - 3 Stars

Wandering Panda - "Hitler riding a T-Rex, check. Journey to the center of the earth, check. Lizard people controlling all major positions, check. Humor and goofy comedy, check. Kept me entertained, check! I loved this movie. It's not for everyone and it's gonna offend a bunch of people but it's a fun ride beginning to end. I will recommend this film and unleash the insanity upon anyone who listens. Watch it!!" - 4.5 Stars



The Overlook Theatre Final Rating*
(Below is for after you've seen the film)

After screening Iron Sky: The Coming Race, and having a lot of fun with it, we really wanted to talk to the director to get some insight on this crazy sequel. But when schedules couldn't align, we deployed our resident interviewer to dig up some dirt with director Timo Vuorensola.



KillDozer: Did you know from the beginning that you would be taking your idea beyond its first installment?

Timo Vuorensola: I did, although I wasn’t sure if the first installment would ever have wings enough to allow a sequel. I always knew I wanted to continue the story to Hollow Earth, but of course, just putting together a scifi action film in Finland, not to mention on an insane topic like Nazis on the Moon, I needed to see first if we could pull it off and only then proceed.


KD: The visuals of the film are extremely well done. Did it help to know when working on the sequel that GC would be heavily involved? Does a decision to use CG help to gauge how far you can stretch a budget?

TV: The thing about CG is that it’s as much a matter of attitude as it is a matter of budget. One can do insanely amazing things, if you have a VFX supervisor and VFX company who’s fully invested to be on board – or one can spend all the money in the world and get very little if it’s just a job for the VFX people. We had the luck of getting to work with a company – Pixomondo – who really wanted to make the film look great, so they were patient, inventive and supportive with us, who were constantly fighting against budget limitations, to provide us with the most amazing results.


KD: Congratulations on your successful crowdfunding campaign! What have you learned through crowdfunding that might help other independent filmmakers?

TV: The more you are willing to connect with the crowd, the easier all activities with the crowd are. It’s hard to crowdfund if you are not willing to put yourself on the line, but if people feel that you are personally involved and invested in working with the community, it’s much easier.


KD: This installment seemed to be more focused on action and adventure and less on the comedy. Did you scale back the comedy for the sequel?

TV: Depends, my sense of comedy is a bit less laugh-out-loud and more parodic, satiric and tends to find the comedy from under the surface. The action and adventure are surely the driving forces, but the comedy is there, it’s just more on taking a piss on conspiracy theories, religions and stuff like that. I mean, it’s still fun but it’s maybe less obviously so.


KD: How did you go about casting Tom Green? Was his role specifically written for him?

TV: Tom’s character was already written, and I was looking for an American comedian to play the role. Tom’s name came up with a mutual friend of ours on Facebook, and I fell in love with the idea of getting to work with Tom instantly. He really fit the idea of the character better than anyone I could’ve thought of.


KD: How much further do you hope to take the Iron Sky franchise?

TV: We have plans for a TV show, we have one spinoff in post production and other game- and so forth topics waiting to become reality. But let’s see what the future brings!


-KillDozer

The Overlook Theatre materialized in a Residence for a screening on 6/27/2019
*Based on the star ratings turned in by character reviewers, others viewed and got to "Dislike" or "Like" but that does not affect the rating.

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