Incoherence marries Interstellar (seen in IMAX)

Rating: 6/10 (12 October 2018)

There's a huge difference between something that was ugly from the start and something beautiful that was marred. This film is the latter. Gorgeous shots, creative composition and movement and cinematic energy are juxtaposed (intentionally, but not necessarily well) with shots that I can only conlude were taken by putting the camera at the end of a giant spring doorstop and *thwang*ing it, and somehow doing the same with the audio.
Disorientation, lack of visuals, and auditory confusion are all key to portraying period's equipment and technology. However, there is a rhythm of confusion and order in space faring filmmaking. It's being upside down and sideways, struggling to regain control of the craft, audible and visual chaos, etc. that movies like 2001 A Space Odyssey and Interstellar perfect, but "First Man" gets so so wrong.
The second issue with the film is it's extraordinarily poor character relatability. After losing their daughter in the first scenes of the film, Neil and Janet Armstrong are emotionless and heartless characters, but not in a manner that's useful for storytelling. Their rare displays of feeling are in Janet's case put off onto an apparent smoking addiction and in Neil's case shielded by his reflective headpiece (with the exception of a spoilery moment that didn't ring true because of lack of substantive foreshadowing).
We've all seen gorgeous imagery of landscapes in space. I wanted to feel the moment of man's first steps and the look on Neil's face, and all I got was a half-recreation, half-historical footage emotionless piece any youtuber could have made.
Then there's Buzz Aldrin, whom Damien Chazelle really seems to have it in for, making him out to be a royal a-hole at every turn and earning the disgust of Armstrong. But it all backfires on Chazelle, because he gave zero screen time to any relationship building between the two men, who are described by historians as having a great working relationship despite being very different men. But no, according to this film, Buzz was an a-hole, and we don't know much else. Do you think NASA would have allowed two men to depend their lives upon one another if they had that poor of a bond?
There has been much attention given to the film for things like it's attention to the flight maneuvers and descent onto the lunar surface, but zero attention is given to the things that people want to know: who decided who would step out first? How did Collins feel seeing the moon from so close but yet having to stay in the command module? What was it like to plant the american flag? Show us the reactions of houston, his family, and the planet as a whole!
But no, just panorama shots of the surface and flashbacks to a picnic.
5 stars in generous for this extreme disappointment.