Review: Fly Me To The Moon
Will They Make History...Or Fake It?
INTRODUCTION
This is a quick review of the newly released film Fly Me To The Moon. Keep in mind this is but one of the many movies I watch every year, and that whatever initial grade I come up for this film could change for better or worse with time. To better keep up to date with both my thoughts on other movies and if my feelings on this film changed, follow me on Letterboxd.
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THE PLOT
Via Letterboxd: Sparks fly in all directions as marketing maven Kelly Jones, brought in to fix NASA’s public image, wreaks havoc on Apollo 11 launch director Cole Davis’ already difficult task of putting a man on the moon. When the White House deems the mission too important to fail, Jones is directed to stage a fake moon landing as backup - and the countdown truly begins.
QUICK REVIEW
Let me be frank, half-way through the year, 2024 hasn’t been the greatest of trips around the sun. Whether it be the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the inflation crisis taking too slow to cool down, the rise of fascist-friendly movements across the globe, or the most depressing presidential election this country has experienced since well…every election post-2012.
The year in films has also been off to a mediocre start; while most reviews I’ve written and you’ve read for this year have been positive, if you look over at my Letterboxd logs for the year I’ve had plenty of negative ratings for plenty films as well. I currently have given only 6 movies this year an A-tier rating which is a bit lower than how many films have reached that tier by this point in the last few years and one of them (Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire) is more of a personal thing than an objective critique.
But one positive has been a handful of great comedies and the return of the big-screen rom-com. While not movies I’m ready to praise as among the best of the year, I have really enjoyed and had fun with movies like The Fall Guy, Hit Man, Thelma, The League For Ungentlemanly Warfare, etc. And earlier in the evening of the day i’m writing this review I went to a press and public screening for Fly Me To The Moon, which marketed itself as romantic comedy with a fun premise attached. Seemed like we had another really enjoyable silly, romantic comedy on our hands.
But this movie does hurt itself with its own premise. Because I came in expecting a movie about an alternative history where the moon landing was partially faked, and instead got a standard romantic comedy set during the lead up to Apollo 11 that just so happens to suddenly have such a wild premise show up halfway through the movie. And thus the premise that I thought would be fun to watch unfold ended up coming off forced and in turn turned what should have been a 90-100 minute movie into a needlessly overlong two hours.
So I didn’t enjoy myself as much as I was hoping to then? Quite the contrary. This movie is overlong and I do question the decision to suddenly add the fake moon landing subplot half-way through the movie, but it doesn’t change the fact that I still had plenty fun with it.
Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson have great chemistry with one another; I found myself rooting for their characters to get together. In their small screen time, Ray Romano and Woody Harrelson make the best of what they got. Jim Rash steals the show at times as the overbearing director of the would-be fake landing - which made the forced subplot still kind of fun to watch unfold. The ensemble just do seem to be really enjoying themselves in this.
The comedy really hit for me more times than not, and the film kept me engaged on how it would all end even though the events its set around are historic ones I already know the outcome of. The soundtrack was on point and while the crafts and technical aspects weren’t anything mindblowing, they weren’t bad either. And it all seem to come together for the audience I saw this with as applause rained from the public side once the credits hit. This is definitely one of those movies audiences will connect with better than my fellow critics will.
As much as this movie can stumble with the overlong runtime, the forced fake moon landing subplot, and the juggling of the comedy and drama, it still hits home runs for me with its casting, fun moments, audience friendliness, and a romance that you root for. It’s not breaking new ground but this is definitely what I would call a date night movie - even with the flaws I nitpicked earlier in this review. I give Fly Me To The Moon a soft but nevertheless higher-end grade of B+. At the end of the day I think this is one of the more audience-friendly movies from the year, and I was in tune with the audience in also enjoying myself watching it.
INITIAL GRADING
