Not always great throughout its 140 minute run, but very often an exciting blockbuster about a major historical event

Rating: 8/10 (5 August 2010)

In 2000, I saw no less than the first approximate hour of this 1995 Ron Howard film based on a true story, but never got to see the entire film that year. Before that, I had seen the movie mentioned in a magazine, so I was aware of its existence, but didn't know much about it. I never watched "Apollo 13" all the way from beginning to end until ten years and a few months later after just seeing some of it. I don't think I had much of an opinion on what I saw of the film just over a decade ago, but by the time I sat down to watch it all, I knew it had a good reputation, so I was expecting a decent film. After watching it, I don't think it's as great as many others who have seen at some point it in the past fifteen years do, but it's still a good drama.
In 1969, astronaut Jim Lovell is mesmerized by Neil Armstrong becoming the first person to set foot on the surface of the moon during the successful Apollo 11 mission, and hopes to go there himself someday. It seems he will have a chance to make that dream come true, as he is expecting to take part in one of these Apollo missions, originally Apollo 14, but then he is switched to Apollo 13. He will be going into space with Fred Haise and Ken Mattingly, so the three of them begin their training for the mission. Shortly before the day of the launch, Mattingly is pulled out of the mission due to exposure to the measles, and is replaced by Jack Swigert. On April 11, 1970, the spacecraft is finally launched, and leaves Earth's atmosphere with the three astronauts inside. At first, the mission doesn't get much attention, but that completely changes when things go terribly wrong, and Lovell, Haise, and Swigert find themselves in serious danger, and there's a good chance they won't survive their journey!
The beginning of this historical drama features archive footage narrated by journalist Walter Cronkite, and this is an intriguing sequence. I did not care for the flirt scene right after this, but that fortunately didn't last, and most of the film can certainly hold the viewer's attention with the events leading up to the Apollo 13 launch, as the crew trains for the mission and Jim Lovell talks to his family members about going into space. There is one awkward scene with Jim's oldest daughter freaking out over the break-up of the Beatles, but fortunately, most of the movie isn't like this at all. The launch scene is intense, with a fitting musical score to go along with it, and after this, it's hard to stop watching "Apollo 13", as we see the three astronauts in peril far from the earth's surface as Mission Control tries to help them, the news reports on the spaceflight, the reactions of Jim's wife and offspring, etc. This 1995 blockbuster also has great visuals, showing the space shuttle in orbit, and also well designed sets. The performances from the lead actors (Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, and Ed Harris) are strong, while some of the supporting performances are a little weaker, but that's not the case with most of the supporting cast. The cast as a whole is very impressive.
I've watched a lot of movies in the past few years, and am not sure exactly why it took me so long to get around to this one, since I had seen a lot of it years before and knew for a while that it was a popular film based on a true story. However, now that I've finally seen the whole movie, I can understand its appeal and why it was nominated for nine Academy Awards, two of which it won. This 1995 blockbuster shows that an adventure movie like this doesn't necessarily need a lot of action to be exciting, since "Apollo 13" doesn't have a lot of that, yet still manages to be effective. At 140 minutes, it's certainly not a short movie, but despite occasional stumbles in quality, it remains intriguing for the vast majority of that time. As an historical film, there are obviously inaccuracies, but it seems many have praised it for its accuracies, unlike some movies based on true stories, and this drama can remind us of how risky space travel is!