MOONSHOT - Blu-ray review

The real Mr. Aldrin introduces this feature film treatment of the lives of the three trailblazers who piloted Apollo 13 to the moon forty years ago, and he gets to say one of the ten coolest things anyone could possibly hope to say, and not be called a liar: "Hello, my name is Buzz Aldrin." Of course you can call Buzz Aldrin a liar if you want to but this is what will happen to you. Why? Because he's Buzz Aldrin and you're not.

Unfortunately, Buzz Aldrin's introduction is the most exciting thing about this tepid feature treatment of the greatest chapter in the story of American exploration. The film races quickly through the several years preceding the historic Apollo launch, beginning with the Gemini missions. The characterizations are delineated in simple terms. Neal Armstrong (Daniel Lapaine) is the straight-laced one. Buzz (James Marsters) is the more temperamental one, and Michael Collins (Andrew Lincoln) is the more laid back one. All three men are ambitious, as any astronaut would have to be, and the central tension of the narrative involves both who will be selected to go to the moon, who will pilot the command module and, biggest duel of all, who will be first to step on the moon.

The script by Tony Basgallop balances work and home life, giving us frequent but superficial glimpses of the astronauts' wives and kids. The wives endure gracefully, the kids miss their dads, etc. The only drama generated in the domestic scenes stems from the clash between alpha male Buzz and his equally alpha male father (Michael J. Reynolds) who doesn't think being a mere astronaut or just the second man on the moon is enough of an accomplishment for his son.

At the halfway mark, director Richard Dale finally takes us into space with the three legends. This should make for great cinema, and there's nothing wrong with the way Dale directs these sequences, but the problem is that most of us have already seen the documentary footage and the recreations simply cannot compare. In fact, Dale served as executive producer on two vastly superior documentary projects covering the same subject: "In the Shadow of the Moon" (2007) and the great series "When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions" (2008).

With such great material already out there, why bother with a docudrama at all? The space scenes contribute nothing new, and the domestic sequences are too brief to provide any meaningful insight into the lives of Armstrong, Aldrin or Collins. The best parts of the movie are the actual archival shots that are mixed into the fictional scenes. It's not that "Moonshot" is a bad movie. It's just that it's unnecessary.

VIDEO

The film is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Compared to the SD release, the Blu-Ray has all the usual advantages: sharper resolution, somewhat brighter colors, etc. It's not a vast improvement, but a noticeable one.

AUDIO

The DVD is presented with a choice of Dolby Digital 5.1 or PCM 2.0 Uncompressed Stereo. I didn't notice any significant difference in sound from the SD release though I'm sure it's a little richer. No subtitles are provided.

EXTRAS

Galleries for the Apollo, Gemini and Mercury Missions are offered separately. Each runs from 6-8 minutes and consists of a montage of still photos from the NASA archives cut to music.

You can also listen to 5 isolated tracks from the film's score by Richard Blair-Oliphant.

Brief text biographies for the three Apollo 13 astronauts and three other members of the space program are the only other extras on the disc.

FILM VALUE

James Marsters is a perfectly fine actor but turn the camera off and he can't honestly say, "Hello, my name is Buzz Aldrin." And that's the problem with the movie. I'm not saying there's no reason to make a feature film about the Apollo 13 missions or any of its astronauts, just that the docudrama approach pales compared to the documentaries that have made on the same subject, including the recent Criterion release "For All Mankind" (1989). You just can't beat the real deal.

"Moonshot" has also been released on SD. I suppose I'm a bit outdated in thinking that there should a good reason to release a movie on Blu-Ray in addition to SD, but now its become commonplace. At the publishing of this review, the Blu-Ray costs $5 more at full retail than the SD and I don't think there's anything captivating enough about the movie's visuals to justify the price difference. You may, however, find a deal that brings the Blu-Ray price down to or even below the SD price (which is also becoming more commonplace as Blu-Ray struggles to find a wider audience).