One heck of a movie.

Rating: 8/10 (2 March 2019)

I remember seeing the trailers, being dismayed that the first actual movie about the moon landing was looking to be a mess of grainy shakycam. So I put off seeing it in the cinema. Ultimately it was too late and I had to wait for home video. And while I do have a decent home cinema system, I do kind of regret not seeing it on a giant venue.
The camera is shaky. Yes. And I am very hard to convince that a shaky camera is necessary. But. Honestly. It fit. I did get the sense of the claustrophobic experience inside those tiny capsules. Only having a tiny window to see anything. When things get out of control the camerawork is still readable. And the sound matches the visuals.
I have recently seen a similar attempt from Russian filmmakers to try to portray Gagarin on film. That was one misguided effort of propagandistic drivel. I mean. He probably was a great guy. But the film was dreary and formulaic... I feared that this film about Armstrong would fall into that same trap. But no. There was actual competence in the writing here.
And the scenes on the moon itself. Somewhat short. But at least they opened up the framing, let it be steady, and bumped the stock from grainy 16mm to glorious 70 mm horizontal IMAX.
One thing I do wish is that more of the film did depict details of the actual flight and mission. But then again... I'd probably prefer a complete recreation spanning 10 * hour long pretty uneventful episodes of a HBO show. Chronicling one day of mission time each episode or something like that. This is a one night movie and I am very happy with what I did get to see.