So this weekend I went to see "Apollo 18". My movie buddy was far more excited about this movie than me. If you're not familiar, "Apollo 18" is one of those "found footage" type movies. It explores the idea that maybe Apollo 17 wasn't the last lunar mission NASA had. The problem is, nothing about this movie worked and here's why.
In the past, most "found footage" movies tend to use a cast of unknowns so that the feel of the movie is a little more suspenseful. It helps with the marketing before the movie if all the viral clips are of people no one's really ever seen. That's why it worked so well with "The Blair Witch Project" because it was a cast of unknowns and as screen faded to black, you were left wondering if maybe, just maybe, this really happened. Which was helped by the directors and crew keeping the actors under wrap just long enough for the conspiracy of this movie to build. Now while I know this is a movie of pure fiction, it's always entertaining to somewhat let yourself escape in the mystery of the movie. Problem is, not 4 minutes until the movie, I recognize one of the actors, Ryan Robbins, from the Syfy Channel show "Sanctuary." Illusion crushed. But that's besides the point of what made "Apollo 18" a poor movie.
After the three main characters get in orbit and two branch off to the moon, we are introduced to our aliens. This is where the movie fails. They aren't scary, they aren't intimidating, we only get a few decent glimpses of them and even then, they don't move the audience to be afraid of them. While they do attack one of the astronauts in a rather disgusting fashion, I was never on the edge of my seat. The story moves too quickly, you don't feel emotionally attached to any of the characters as the aliens terrorize them and brings them to their obvious doom. As the screen fades to black at the end, it's more a feeling of "Sucks for them" or "Oh well."
The movie, all 86 minutes of it, just simply lacks any sort of creative imagination when it comes to pulling in the audience enough. While not one of my favorites, another "found footage" movie, "Paranormal Activity" drew audiences in and had legitimate jump scares. The only legitimate jump scare of "Apollo 18" happens early in the movie, way before they encounter the aliens and when the writers try to use the same scare post alien encounter, it simply doesn't work.
And of course the movie tries to draw you into the whole conspiracy behind the found footage but yet again fails at that. After giving the audience the "post mission history" it delays the credits by putting up the website that held all the movie's viral marketing prior to release, then has the credits role for over 5 minutes. This is where "Paranormal Activity" succeeded with it's "found footage" angle because they didn't have credits. They threw up the little epilogue and faded to black, nothing more, nothing less. You can not market a film as "found footage" and then spend over 5 minutes listing off the cast and crew, again, the facade is broken.
So while "Apollo 18" tried really hard to be as scary as it's predecessors, it fails on every level. It's too short, not scary, and breaks the facade too soon and leaves you unable to connect or feel sympathetic towards the characters who are being terrorized by the outside force. Sorry "Apollo 18" but you are barely getting a 5 out of 10 on this one.
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