Iron Sky | Berlin Film Festival 2012

After the unexpectedly successful sci-fi cult parody Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning (2005), the Finnish guerrilla film-maker Timo Vuorensola hits the floor of the Special Panorama category with his new piece of tomfoolery Iron Sky which this time parodies Nazi esotericism and fascistic-techno-mysticism.

At the end of 1945, a group of Nazi scientists escaped in space rockets to the dark side of the moon where they established their base: A giant swastika-shaped ‘Black Sun’. Now, in 2018, Nazis return to Earth with their mission ‘Meteor Blitzkrieg’ which is made possible by using the  battery power of a smart phone, which they stole from astronaut James Washington (Christopher Kirkby) whom they found spying. It turns out that the President of the United States (resembling Sarah Palin) sent astronauts back to the moon as part of her re-election campaign. James Washington is converted to Aryan and returned back to Earth; however, a secret Nazi agent Renate (Julia Dietze) is determined to rescue him.

A million things happen in this over-the-top B-movie exploitation. The soundtrack is overpowering and the graphic design is good – I would even say it looks too good, breaking out from trash conventions and leaning towards mainstream Hollywood quality. Although seeing Udo Kier in the role of a Nazi Fuhrer is a delight,  the acting is far too good to provide that B-movie edge which would make all the banal one-liners, inbetween all sorts of graphic explosions, funny. “Here we come, bitches!” and “Look who’s laughing now?” A better job could have been done in terms of funny, either in the script or performance wise.

The narrative itself sounds crazy – and crazy it is, packed with as many cheap thrills, action film clichés and parodies as possible, but it is simply not funny enough: annoyingly pinpointing how crazy it is every five minutes, in case you forget while watching.

Iron Sky tries to tick all the boxes of B genre so hard it forgets that ‘B’ is primarily a failed aspiration to be ‘A’. However, parody, sci-fi and exploitation are all niches with their own circle of fans thirsty for new stories, and I am sure they will appreciate this film exactly for what it is.

 Verdict: ••

Ruta Buciunaite

Watch the trailer of Iron Sky here