Have the critics never seen any films about the space program before?

Rating: 2/10 (6 February 2019)

This film was beyond hackneyed. From the silly overuse of closeups to the nauseating 'shaky cam' there was no cliche' left untouched. It's sad to think that this film has been nominated for several Oscars - an will probably win. There is so much wrong with this film but the most egregious thing about it, (If I had to pick just one) is Ryan Gosling's wooden, detached, so-called "performance". Yes, Neil Armstrong was a reserved, quiet man that often seemed shy to a fault, but anyone like myself that's seen lots of footage of him could plainly see that he was a man that was not without a sense of humor and a genuine boyish smile. Even with the tragedy of losing his daughter, he believed in what he was doing and took enormous joy from doing a job well done. He was a true American hero - quit and confident, unflappable, but totally absorbed in getting it right.
I have read about his troubled home life but I truly thought the "warts and all" approach to biopics vanished with the 1990's. If you want to see a soap opera that just happens to have a few scenes about the space program and going to the moon, then you may enjoy this movie. Otherwise, strap yourself in for one long, boring ride with lots of faces, faces, faces and more faces while your eyes strain to focus on constantly slightly moving images. The parts of the film that dealt with the actual NASA stuff were relatively well done, but all of it has been done before and to much greater effect. If you think you're going to see something in the vein of Apollo 13 or HBO's From the Earth to the Moon, prepare yourself for a mountain of disappointment.
I am one of those that love anything about the space program, particularly the Apollo portion of it, but this film delivers none of the sense of awe and grandeur that should go along with mankind's greatest technological achievement. Hard to believe that a director could take something so monumental and boil it down to such a boring, depressing tale chock full of uninteresting, dull people. My recommendation is to avoid this crap altogether. All of the hype about omitting the planting of the American flag was just was needless as the film fails with or without that particular scene.