On December 7, 1972 NASA launched Apollo 17 as the last manned mission to the moon. At least it was the last official manned mission that was announced. Just 2 years after the launch of Apollo 17, they launched Apollo 18 with 3 Americans that had no idea what they were getting into. The DOD sent these men to place some cameras around an area of the moon where the footage that has finally been released gives a new perspective on what is located on the moon. It’s this footage of the unknown that has kept NASA from sending anyone else back to the moon since that secretive mission in 1972.

REAL OR JUST CONSPIRACY:
I’ve seen some movies that have had no action yet has interesting story, some that have lots of action but a boring story, and then there’s Apollo 18, a movie that has an interesting plot idea but is so, so, soooo boring. It’s made to sound like it’s real, where even in the description on the back cover says that “While NASA denies its authenticity, others say it’s the real reason we’ve never gone back to the moon”. Ok, fine lets say this is actually real, there’s no way this footage would ever see the light of day, even less likely would said footage be put into a movie like it’s some marketing ploy.

Aside from the crazy idea that this might be some sort of conspiracy on why there hasn’t been anyone back on the moon, the movie is just boring. As I said, the plot of it is interesting, 3 guys get sent to the moon on a secret mission to place detectors to alert the US when any attack has been made. While Commander Nate Walker (played by Lloyd Owen) and Captain Ben Anderson (played by Warren Christie) go to the moon to place these sensors and cameras around some locations on the moons surface, Lieutenant Colonel John Grey (played by Ryan Robbins) stays in the main ship in orbit waiting for the 2 to finish their mission. When there is interference with the radio, the astronauts begin to have worries about their mission, when they find some footprints that don’t belong to any American foot, they start to think they have been lied to, but when they find a dead Russian cosmanaut in a crater, their flag they placed missing, and some sort of tracks, the astronauts start to think there are extraterrestrial life on the moon. Before they can get off the moon the astronauts get attacked by these unseen and unknown lifeforms that can somehow surivie the cold vaccum of space.

See, good plot idea, but the problem comes in the execution of the movie. There should have been some good scary moments where I was made to feel tense and jump even but at no time did it happen. In fact nothing happens in this whole movie. At 20 minutes into the movie it had felt like I had been watching it for an hour, at 49 minutes it felt like 2 hours, Apollo 18 is an hour and 27 minutes long and during that whole time nothing happens. The most exciting moments of the movie are the last 10 minutes, the other hour and 17 minutes is just these 2 guys walking around the moon talking to each other, placing cameras, and footage made to look like it’s old. The so called aliens, which have a cool concept in their design and what they are supposed to be are used very little, and when they are seen it’s so quick that it can hardly be seen and it’s also blurry with the way the quailty of the film is made to look.

At no time does anything really happen in this movie, just boredom. Even the acting is bland and boring. Both actors, Lloyd Owen and Warren Christie, are playing characters that are supposed to be on the moon doing a secret mission while finding out that Russia had sent they own guys to the moon who were dead while some strange noises are being made, items mysterously falling off shelves in the capsule, and having some sort of alien life attacking them but I never believe this is happening. I see it happening, I know that it’s happening cause I see it, but the acting is lowkey making me think these guys were just walking around a park while maybe having a squirral attack them. Actually, I can’t even say that because watching a squirral attack them would have been more exciting than what Apollo 18 is.

BAD QUALITY LOOKING GOOD:
Another disappointing aspect to this movie was the way it looks. Apollo 18 on Blu Ray seemed to contradict itself. The whole reason for Blu Ray is so that movies have a sharper, crisper, more colorful look, that they go from just watching a movie to experiencing a movie. All of this is is negated when Apollo 18 is given a look like the movie is taken from film that was used in 1972 where the quality was poor, it’s grainy, it’s choppy, there’s scratches in it, and worse yet it jumps around all of the place. I get how the movie s supposed to look real by giving it the quality of 39 year old recording that was done in space. I couldn’t stand the way they had this movie jumping around, the flashes, having so much not being seen to give it that old feel, it was annoying and took away from the movie. Having the grain, the noise, and stratches in it would have been enough to make it look old and it would have been cool but they went overboard with everything else. Though, with all this atempt to make this movie look nearly 40 years old it’s still on Blu Ray, it’s not that old, so it has a clean look to the bad. Which only made the way they tried to make it look so old stand out even more because of how clear it is. Apollo 18 is a new movie on Blu Ray, so it still has the quailty of a newer film, with sharp colors and clear audio, it just gets taken away with all the horrible jumps and flashes used to make it look old.