The man behind the mission

Rating: 8/10 (13 October 2018)

This undoubtedly the best space movie I've seen since Apollo 13.. and I've seen quite a number, as I've been interested in studying manned spaceflight for well over 33 years. I've listened to hundreds of hours of archival mission audio too.
I loved how it put a human face on the Apollo 11 mission and the life of Neil and his earlier missions. From his X-15 flights to Gemini VIII and Apollo 11 This is meant to be a biopic and not a film about the moon landing. The filmmakers took some liberties, but this is commonplace in Hollywood.

The film as the title implies, is about the man, not the mission. This has led to some controversy, most notably (I'm speaking as an American here) over how the planting of the US flag was downplayed in the film, but Neil Armstrong's own family defended this, saying he would have approved since this was a human achievement, not solely an American one. The plaque left on the moon said "We came in peace for ALL Mankind" (emphasis added)
Half a million people from around the globe, including my grandfather, made this mission possible, from tracking stations in Australia, (we'd not have been able to watch in on TV without their help) to German rocket scientists secretly brought to the US after World War II. Neil was always a humble man an eschewed the limelight intensely in his later years, and you can tell that from the film.
I saw others complain abut the jump cuts and scenes that made people dizzy. I thought this made the film more authentic. I studied the Gemini VIII mission closely and knew much about the incident featured in the film. It is intense but made almost me feel like I was actually there.

The musical score was incredible and had some tributes to many other films including the "Blue Danube Waltz" scene from 2001 A Space Odyssey. The inclusion of a theremin is perfect and gives it an ethereal spacey quality. The sound director did a great job at showing that sound cannot travel through space by having dead silence at parts.
The film has some obvious flaws but did a great job at telling the story from a perspective not seen before.
Go see it! From all I've read on Neil Armstrong, I learned a new thing or two about him.