j* Movie Reviews 2019

Iron Sky 2: The Coming Race (2019)

This one is way better than the first one.

Look, these films are so amazingly whack. There is no other thing being made like this, they are fully off-tap. This one is a heap slicker in both presentation and underlying theory than the first one. It pokes its satirical knife deeper and cuts closer to the bones of modern life than ever before. I mean maybe it's just because I watched it as part of the election come-down, but it really seemed like an entertaining exploration for just how weird our modern world malaise is. I kind of feel this one nails the vibe of 2019 in the way Zoolander nailed 2001. It is kinda like Weird Al making a movie, but back when reality wasn't as Weird Al as it is now.

So the Nazi moon-base is in disarray so they decide to head back to Earth; ye olde hollow Earth peopled with the Vril lizardy people. All the world leaders live there, in hollow Earth. Ye old President Sarah Palin, Margaret Thatcher, Popes, Bin Laden. You name them, the world leaders and despots are there, hanging out with all their dinosaurs and their special centre Earth sun that keeps things ticking over.

I can't actually remember why the moon base people go there, maybe to steal the sun-maker? But then there's Hitler riding a T-rex and triceratops chariot race and it's all great fun. There's this great ongoing dichotomy of man-brains and man-brawn, with this excellent Rock/Vin Diesel/LL Cool J Aussie guy playing up the invincibility of action heroes. Our main character is this kick-arse chick.

It's fair to say, like the first one, that this one tends towards the a quite flexible concept of a movie, leaning more into the sequence of sketch-comedy space. But I found far more of these sketches really hit the mark for me this time. Again, maybe cause it felt like it leaned more political and these were post-election days.

One of the things that continues to impress me is how they manage a big-budget vibe in terms of effects and set and costumes with what is arguably a quite small budget. I though the acting in this one was excellent and the ending a super-awesome lead in for the next instalment of whack, or a fitting next level of the babushka. Humanity may have been engineered by lizard-people, it can escape Earth, but it can never escape itself.

I really enjoy the whacky mash-up fun vibes.

J* gives it 4 stars.