The Nazis left the Earth in 1945 (as part of a secret space program) and set up a secret base on the dark side of the moon.  In 2018, a US space mission (a publicity stunt to get the US president reelected) lands on the moon and discovers the base.  One of the astronauts, James Washington (a black male model) is captured and turned white.  The Nazis realize how powerful Washington’s cell phone is as a computer and Nazi Commander Adler volunteers to go to Earth to retrieve those devices so that big Nazi space battleship Götterdämmerung can rise from the moon.   When Adler and Washington return to Earth, they discover Renate Richter- the resident Nazi expert on Earth- had stowed away on the Nazi spaceship (all of the ships are shaped like flying saucers).  Adler and Renate are used by the female President’s campaign advisor to use Nazi ideas for the President’s campaign (and it works successfully).  Don’t forget that Adler has plans to overthrow the Fuhrer (Udo Kier) of the Fourth Reich and invade Earth.

 

IRON SKY is a fantastic sci-fi spoof/ political satire.  It is a fun and clever movie done up in B movie trappings and made on a budget over $10 million with over 1000 visual effects shots in addition to shooting many scenes in a  green screen environment.  I do get the irony that the female President is a dead ringer for Sarah Palin (she once ran for Vice-President alongside McCain back in 2008).   It is a very funny movie that never takes itself too seriously while taking jabs at Nazis and American politics in addition to throwing in some nods to DR. STRANGELOVE.  Also IRON SKY manages to create some big space battles between the nations of Earth and the Nazi flying saucers (complete with space zeppelins).  I love this movie.  It is an instant cult gem and one of my favorite films of 2012.  The director’s cut adds twenty minutes of new visual effects, new music score cues, and new bits of humor.  I enjoyed the film as much as I loved the theatrical cut.  I did notice some of the visual effects sequences had new bits included.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

FORGING THE IRON SKY is a 78 minute making-of documentary (with chapter stops)-

It covers the origins of the movie, how director Timo Vuorensola got into directing, the three years it took to get the script written, the crowd funding approach, the production in Germany, New York, and Austraila, and the visual effects (where sometimes they would go to the fans to help with the effects work.

 

A photo gallery shows various production art, but you should also check out the 32 page concept art book too.

 

Theatrical trailer and three teaser trailers are also included.  Some of the teaser trailers feature footage not in the movie and part of the purpose of those trailers was to sell it to investors and fans.

 

The extras that didn’t carry over from the first IRON SKY blu-ray are the making-of featurette, the behind-the-scenes footage segments, and the audio commentary Timo recorded for the theatrical cut.

 

The director’s cut blu-ray is in a steel book case (that is pretty sweet looking) which also includes the DVD of the movie in standard definition.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  IRON SKY is a fantastic sci-fi satire with Nazis from the moon, political satire, and Udo Kier. 

 

This review is ©4-5-2014 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

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