Movie Review: First Man

Sorry to say it but don't bother.  How could a biopic about Neil Armstrong culminating in the Apollo 11 landing go so wrong?  I think the root cause of the numerous problems here is that the people making this movie don't understand the difference between a supremely competent engineer/pilot with a quiet streak from someone who is suffering with severe depression.  The result is that Armstrong is portrayed as an emotionally damaged robot, numbly going through the motions, and finally just standing and literally staring off into space when he finally gets to the surface of the Moon.  Watching Gosling skulk through this movie, face downcast and looking vaguely guilty of something (what? insanely great achievement?), is enough to put any normal person off this movie.

Of course the Apollo program wasn't all wine and roses.  Take the Apollo 1 fire for example.  It has to be shown, and it was shown here in a respectful manner.  But these tragedies were balanced out and ultimately overshadowed by by the triumphs that actually occurred.  This movie pushes those triumphs aside to concentrate on the bad times.  Additionally, the musical score is best described as funeral music.

So what was good?  The acting (apart from Gosling hang-dogging it), set design, all the usual competent film stuff.  At least they pulled that much off, and the result is a professional product.  The tension during the actual moon landing was pretty good.  OTOH, they had the transcript, not a lot of writing to mess up there.

Finally, I'd heard some rumors of these script problems at sites like Vintage Space, but they all followed up with praise for the re-created space hardware.  I was looking forward to at least enjoying that aspect, but there was so much shakey-cam work that they could have been using cardboard props for all I could see.  In particular, the opening X-15 sequence was a disappointment.  So no joy there either.  Some of the CGI exterior shots were OK, maybe slightly better than those in the film Apollo 13.  OTOH, that was made 24 years ago, of course the CGI should be better.

So, the bottom line is don't bother.  1 out of 4 stars.

Go watch Apollo 13, go watch The Right Stuff.  Plenty of good human interaction including, yes, funerals and family tensions there, but these concerns don't take over the stories.