Apollo 18
Officially, the last manned space mission to the moon happened on December 17th, 1972, with Apollo 17. Recently, however, 84 hours of footage from a secret 18th Apollo mission were uncovered. This movie is compiled of that footage and uncovers budget cuts weren’t the only reason mankind never returned to the moon…
Sound and Vision:
Apollo 18 is made very much in the style of Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, but with old cameras and as such you can’t expect pristine images. Everything looks old, dirty and damaged. Still, the level of detail is surprisingly good and every scratch and artefact you see is deliberate. Add to that extremely inky blacks and you can only conclude Apollo 18′s transfer is a winner.
The sound comes with a DTS-HD track and although you may wonder why the makers would include a hi-tech track for supposed “ancient footage”, the track does provide a rather full soundscope with discrete effects coming from the back, omnipresent silence to heighten the atmosphere, superb vocalization from the front center speaker, and bass support when scare moments arrive. Surprisingly good.
Extras:
None
Conclusion:
Apollo 18 takes the “found footage” genre into space and does it reasonably well.
The plot with the aliens is quite hilarious if you come to think about it, but the way things are set up and how the story progresses towards the end is quite nice. The director manages to create an atmosphere of tension and the cast does a decent job portraying astronauts left on their own in space, with nothing to fight back.
Apollo 18 isn’t the best movie in this genre, and has some flaws in the plot, but those that like this type of movies will certainly enjoy it. It’s got a very realistic feel of authenticity and as such just works as it should.
6.0