👍A good idea executed in a way I am very mixed.

Rating: 6/10 (24 November 2018)

If you are expecting this movie to be a space adventure like Apollo 13, you would be wrong. First man would offer you more than just a adventure to the moon. Resisting the temptation to make a pop corn entertainment about the moon landing mission itself, Damien Chazelle decided to make a human drama and a character study of Neil Armstrong himself. Though many have criticized this for not being a movie like Apollo 13 but about a successful landing instead of a unsuccessful one, I personally really respect the direction of a human drama they went for. Instead of doing what came before, Damien Chazelle took a risk by making a movie no one expected from the source material. Even though I like the direction they went for, the final product which is the film itself I have very mixed feelings.
There are many fantastic aspects about this movie. The look of the film itself is very good from the sound mixing to the production design. It was nominated for 4 oscars and won 1 for visual effects, and I think they were all well deserved nominations. There is not a single bad performance and many of the best performances of this year was actually from this movie. Ryan Gosling does a phenomenal job as Louis Armstrong and Claire Foy of course gives a amazing Oscar worthy performance as Neil Armstrong's wife. The script is well written in a way that it literally digs deep into Armstrong's character and of course the score is fantastic. In general there is just some fantastic moments inside this movie worth watching. However, I do have issues with many aspects that almost outweigh the positive aspects.

The big problem I have with this movie is the tone. Since this movie is a character study, it digs deep into the past regrets and losses Neil Armstrong has experienced. Therefore the film naturally goes into a more darker direction quite literally. Inside this movie there are numerous funeral scenes, and Neil Armstrong himself is portrayed as a cold emotionless man. I can see that they wanted to show how there were many losses and emotional punches people had to experience to make the moon landing possible in order to make it respectful, but I think their attempt to be respectful backfired a bit and became a bit disrespectful. What I mean by that is by making a movie centered in loses and regrets, this movie just became pure depressing which I personally don't think fits the source material. Even in the final moon landing sequence this movie didn't have the triumphant atmosphere this event deserved, and the conclusion to Neil Armstrong's character arc was pretty ambiguous and unredeeming. As I said before I really do respect the direction they went for, but I just think the end result was a bit too disrespectful by being overly dark and depressing.

Overall this is a movie I have very mixed feelings about. Though I didn't like the overall outcome of the movie, there is just a lot of phenomenal moments inside this film. Many people actually love this film, and if you say you loved it I would not argue since I can see why. I rate this a 6/10 and a C-. Though I am not sure whether or not I can recommend this, it's still a thumbs up and do consider this a positive review.