We Come In Peace
Rating: 4/10
Running Time: 93 minutes
US Certificate: R UK Certificate: 15
Nazis on the moon? That looked Reich up my street and I’ve been eagerly awaiting it ever since the brave premiere at the Berlin Film Festival but alas, like the invasion of Russia, this is a massive missed opportunity.
In Timo Vuorensola’s Finnish effort there is a colony of Nazis waiting on the dark side of the Moon after escaping from Earth when World War Two ended in defeat. Hidden from Earth they kept their National Socialist ideals and waited patiently until the time was right to strike and after 70 years, aided by crazy scientist (Pruckner) and pure Aryan beauty Renata Richter (Dietze), Klaus Adler (Otto) leads a pretty naff invasion force against President Palin (Paul).
Why, oh why didn’t they just play it straight? Much more amusingly terrifying would have been this ridiculous premise played out deadpan with a group of nasty Nazis and some Expendables-like defence from planet earth. But instead we have a poor movie in the mould of a camp comedy auctioneer. As it is, half the cheesy jokes fall flat, certain characters just don’t work (Kirby’s James Washington being the main culprit), the Nazis are not scary or interesting and the whole plot is just a bit of a disjointed, uninteresting mess. Overall, it seems like, and is, an eclectic group of Europeans trying to do American humour and failing.
The final scene is impressively thought out and here are some amusing ideas and jokes – like the commander of a battleship being a scorned woman looking for revenge – but these are all very minor parts of the film that offer very little except a small snort of appreciation from the audience. You could argue that Iron Sky is kitsch and tongue in cheek and should be taken as that but it could have been so much better.
It's Got: Nazis from the moon - that has to be commended, some decent ideas
It Needs: To have been played straight with the funnies coming from the situation not forced cheesy jokes, scary Nazis
Summary
Timo Vuorensola should be shot for wasting the amazing premise of Nazis on the Moon. Too much cheesy humour ruins a film that should have been played a lot straighter.