"We just put Sir Isaac Newton in the driving seat"

Rating: 6/10 (28 June 2017)

Apollo 13 follows the ill-fated mission back in 1970 of three astronauts attempting to land on the moon. When an explosion on the space shuttle forces the astronauts to abort their mission (which initially causes disappointment, but ultimately sets off a chain reaction of problems for the astronauts) flight director Gene Kranz (Ed Harris) and his team of NASA boffins must try to navigate the pilots back to Earth using several risky and untried methods....
My summary above does give a basic foundation for this film, but unfortunately a lot of what I describe above occurs in the second half of the film (which I'm prepared to admit was pretty engrossing). It's a shame really that the first half of the film isn't anywhere near as strong as the second half as it could have been a truly great film rather than being merely a good film. The build-up to the space mission was dull and padded; Howard feels the need to show some syrupy family dynamics and topical references such as Lovell's daughters being upset about the Beatles breaking up (which seemed to have just been thrown in there to remind folks that it was set in 1970 and to give the film some soapy slush). The training aspect before the space mission was dull and I've got to be honest that I did find the film a bit tough going in the first hour.... but then....
Howard must have had a big kick up the backside because the second half of the film was great. It has drama, tension and I really liked the way that everyone all chipped in together to try and get 3 of their best astronauts safely back to Earth. There is so much intricate planning in the second half that it becomes hard to keep up (and all of the geeky space talk will go over most people's heads), but the second half does contain everything that makes a good action/drama film and therefore for this portion of the film it gets two thumbs up. However....
This is a narrative problem so I'm unsure who to blame here, but throughout the space mission we're led to believe that Swigert is the one who is responsible for the explosion on the shuttle and he is generally deemed as the 'bad guy' - also due to the fact that he took Mattingley's place on the shuttle. Swigert is never really painted in a positive light and I was fully ready to hate him at the end, but then I found that the rug was pulled from under me when I learned that the explosion was caused due to a defect with the shuttle rather than being caused by human error. Huh?? So Swigert did nothing wrong?? Then why make him out to be the villain all along? I've not read Lovell's book so maybe this is explained there - was there beef between Lovell and Swigert or was this Ron Howard putting in a curveball twist? Either way it didn't sit well with me and I would have preferred to have been behind all 3 of the astronauts rather than 2 of them.
The energy that the film offers in the second half and the impressive cast and photography make this worth a look, but in my book this is far from being a perfect film.