Genres

Visitors Review

hoodoo17 2012-05-24 22:54:18

great movie

spoiler alert lots of spoilers :DGreat movie. im glad a director finally chose to move away from thetiny green man stereotype for aliens.all seems believable until youthink about what has science taught us all life needs oxygen(well ourlife, we have never officially found life other than earth so we haveno idea what they need to survive)also sound cannot travel through thevaccum of space Sounds requires a medium to travel through. An exampleis air. (You've also heard sound travel through water and solidobjects)now unless NASA developed a live video streaming device and wasrecorded as it came in there is no way the video was brought back toearth. you could say more missions went to the moon, which is verypossible but very stupid because it would be a waste of money. alsosome cgi looked pretty bad like the end scene when ben is overwhelmedby the rock spider alien things. and the cosmonaught LEM looksphotoshoped when ben is trying to link it with the main shuttle.(LEM=lunar excursion module)Anyway i liked it though,the ending is quitesad. "im coming home im coming home" says ben "do not let ben enter theshuttle he is infected" CAPCOM tells john. ben is unfortunatelydestined to die. this movie was amazing though it is absolutely fake,except for a few clips (some footage looks HD and others look like thescreen to a windup TV for blackouts)i loved it. go see it but don'texpect to have a full theater. i went day of release and there wasabout 20 people probably all the hater on IMDb

kerithion 2012-05-24 14:21:44

Above Par Found Footage Horror

Reading the negative reviews for this film, it seems to me that themajority of reviewers who thought this was a poor movie didn't actuallyfollow the plot very closely. There are no major flaws in the storythat I could detect, and while the movie does require attention on thepart of the viewer to follow what's unfolding, it's hardly rocketscience.The cinematography was fantastic, evoking a real sense of a moonmission, and as such, this is one of the few "found-footage" films(along with "REC") that provides the principles with a believablereason to document what occurs out-with the questionable"I-must-film-this-for-posterity" nonsense served up by the likes of"Cloverfield".The small cast do a sterling job, and I don't quite follow how someother reviewers found the characters "unlikeable". The performances inthe film evoked my interest. I found myself sympathising with theirplight from the outset, and my involvement increased as the filmcontinued. Much of this came from the terse script which was pleasantlyfree from filler and the baggage of back-story.I thought the pacing of "Apollo 18" was excellent, creating anedge-of-the-seat uneasy tension building to absolute horror. I thinkfans of "Paranormal Activity" will enjoy this film. Those who didn'tenjoy "Paranormal Activity" will most likely not like "Apollo 18". Inthe end, I guess it all depends on what scares you. "Apollo 18" scaredme. That makes it a successful horror movie in my opinion. But horror,like so much else, is a relative concept.I have friends who didn't enjoy "Paranormal Activity", and I canunderstand why: it simply didn't poke them in their scary-bone. Me, Iended up sleeping with the light on after watching it. "Apollo 18" isone of those films - if it's going to scare you, it'll really scareyou; but if gradually-rising terror isn't your thing, it'll probablydisappoint.Despite being a low budget production, there's nothing amateur aboutthe delivery. I think "Apollo 18" is a taut and disturbing horror storythat puts bigger budget disappointments like the cliché-filled"Cloverfield" to shame. Think "Moon" meets "Paranormal Activity". Ifthat sounds like your type of movie, then don't let this one slip underyour radar.

granlongo 2012-05-23 18:08:32

Not bad, but could have been epic, a shame

WARNING: Has spoilers!The movie starts OK, a group of proud astronauts is gathered to go tospace in a secret mission, DoD, the movie promises something wicked isgoing to happen. Then they reach the moon, which was excellent, one ofthe best recreated extraterrestrial environments I've seen on film, atleast, the most believable. The fact that the people in the movie havesort of real technology in outer space is definitely a plus, it makesthem so realistically vulnerable, it is great. The movie has a nice wayto create suspense,making it grow slowly but constantly.What makes no sense at all, is the aliens they put in, what the hellwould some carnivorous spiders do on the moon, how could such a speciesthrive that much on the moon, eating astronauts? Science fiction isgood when things make sense, maybe you can twist things up a little tospice it up, but in this case, anything would have made more sense thanthose stupid spiders... cosmic amebas, living craters, intelligentaliens from somewhere else, even an evil god! Those spiders would onlyhave sense in a really developed cosmic biology system, like the movie"alien" otherwise it's like making a movie about people getting lost inthe Sahara desert which suddenly are attacked by sharks!As I say on the title, the movie was OK, but could have been awesomewith a little more thinking.

Priyantha Bandara 2012-05-23 11:45:02

a science fiction which speaks of creatures on the moon other than a rabbits

This is like the Blair Witch Project. The difference is that it takesplace on the moon. Totally Shot with shaking cameras and first personviews. There is something creepy out there and the characters in themovie don't know it. And sure hell we don't either. There is somebumping around in the low gravity environment and rocket languagefilled with strange acronyms like 'R2D2' which no one can understand.Overall it sure is a science fiction which speaks of creatures on themoon other than a rabbits. Just watch it if you fancy space stuff. Buttotally avoid it if you fancy horrors and thrillers.My advice is watch "Moon" (2009) 3 times instead.

woodruff-ron 2012-05-23 08:09:25

Waste of time, did not think the plot through

Warning: This review will spoil the ending.Whoever wrote this did not think it through. #1 Where did this footagecome from if it was destroyed in an explosion? #2 Duhh, the actors havebeen in other movies. #3 We had already been to the moon 6 timeswithout any trouble from the "creatures". #4 No "lighter than gravity"effect when walking on moon. #5 No clicking sounds in spaceWarning: Here comes the spoiler... I liked the Russian Cosmonautsubplot much better and I thought it had some promise at that point. Ifonly they could have stayed with that idea and fleshed it out....Unfortunately, the "spider rock" creatures were just too unbelievableand silly for me. Don't waste your time!

FredLL1950 2012-05-22 13:47:03

Just What I Expected!

Today (Sunday, Sept. 4), I was contemplating going to see Apollo 18.But first I read the reviews here. Upon seeing so many negative onesand so few positive ones, I knew I wanted to see it for sure since Iliked The Blair Witch Project and both Paranormal Activity movies. Thatbeing said, it was just about what I expected and I liked it a lot. Itcould have been better, but I wasn't disappointed. I thought the castwas very good. So if you liked previous "found or leaked footage"movies such as Blair Witch Project or the Paranormal Activity movies,don't miss this one! If you're not sure, wait until it comes out on DVDand rent it at Redbox for $1. It's worth a lot more than that!

nikevapor16 2012-05-22 00:07:29

not that great

For me, Apollo 18 was just too boring. They were trying to capitalizeon the found footage craze lately, but they didn't really accomplishthat. The movie is advertized as horror, but I would call it a sci-fidrama at most. The characters were decent enough; I wasn't reallyattached to them but they served their purpose. But my major problemwas that nothing really happens for 80% of the film as far as scaresgo. There just weren't enough shocking or scary scenes in the film tomake the found footage aspect work. It had it's moments, but overallthe pacing was too slow and the pay off really wasn't there.4/10, good idea, poor execution

gavin6942 2012-05-21 10:08:56

Well Made For What It Was

Decades-old found footage from NASA's abandoned Apollo 18 mission,where two American astronauts were sent on a secret expedition, revealsthe reason the U.S. has never returned to the moon.Up front I want to say I am not a fan of "found footage" movies or POVfilms, or anything like that where we are lead to believe it is adocumentary shot with cheap cameras. While this tactic works forcertain things, more often than not it is just annoying to watch. Withthat in mind, you might guess I had a low expectation for this film(which I did).I actually have to give them credit, though. The creators did somethings right. In fact, many things. They started with a good idea andwere able to visually present it. Faking the surface of the moon is notterribly difficult, but the detail of the suits and everything elsecould not be pulled off on a shoe-string budget. Yet, here we are withan unknown writer, director and cast making the story seem as real aspossible.You also have to give them credit for showing the alien (or whatever)as little as possible. This helps cover up any budget concerns aboutmaking a good monster, but even more importantly -- in horror, less isvery often more. A shadow here, a terrified look there... far moretense and scary than just showing what is behind the curtain. They madethe right decision here.I do not know if I would go so far as to say I recommend this film. Imean, it still works off the "found footage" concept I dislike. But thefact is, for what it was, they presented the idea about as well asanyone could have. If nothing else, you have to give them credit forthat and wait for the next film... that will be the "make or break" ofthe director's career. This one was just getting him past the firsttest.

MartianTom 2012-05-20 13:22:54

In space, no one can hear you yawn....

...and I hope the people next to me in the cinema couldn't hear meyawning, which I started doing after about half-way.These 'found footage' movies have varied over the years, since TheBlair Witch Project kicked it all off. I had mixed feelings about that,but overall I felt it was an effective chiller: what's NOT seen isoften so much scarier. Cloverfield, for me, remains at the top of thelist, while the PA films are way down.Apollo 18 isn't far from the bottom, either. The premise wasintriguing, and I genuinely expected some sort of development in thegenre - something like a cross between Blair Witch and Alien. What Igot was 90 minutes of predictability and disappointment. The sense ofisolation and claustrophobia was well done, but little else. I feltsome sense of a tension build-up for perhaps a half-hour - but then itdissipated once the nature of the 'horror' became apparent.I came away feeling that here was a great opportunity missed. It'sworth seeing for the technical excellence and attention to detail. Justdon't expect to see anything new - or anything that'll frighten thepants off you.

Neil Welch 2012-05-20 09:09:56

Read that opening screen, and wonder to yourself...

Apollo 18 starts by telling us that, in 2011, 84 hours of NASA filmbecame available and this film is edited from that footage. We then seethe salient elements of the mission: the crew members, the vaguemission parameters, elements of the flight, landing, and excursions andactivities, and that is when things start to go wrong. It's also when Istart to spoiler, so bail out now if you don't want to hear any more.Turns out that the Russians have already landed in the vicinity, buttheir lunar module is deserted: the two US lunarnauts subsequently findthe dead cosmonaut, at which point - oh, the heck with it, you canprobably guess anyway - one of the men becomes infected with what turnout to be things which appear to be rocks but which look and move likegiant spiders, ticks or crabs. After various problems, the survivingastronaut takes off in the soviet lunar module, only to be attacked bythe thingies just in time to lose control of the vehicle and crash itinto the US command module, destroying them both. All for the best,probably.All well and good. It's a bit leisurely, there are a couple of made youjump moments, and you get the feeling that a lot of the time they areexpecting you to sit there going "Wow! They're really captured the lookof all the old moon footage, both the physical side of the moon and thehardware, and also the look of the video and film footage, the jargon,the sound of the radio etc." and it's true, they have. Having saidthat, this means that they have made it look like rubbishy old low-resvideo, and 16mm film with projector scratches, sprocket hole jumps etc.Well done, guys! But I could live with that, I could live with the slowpace, I could live without knowing how the creepy crawlies survive on adiet of raw rock (and the occasional passing astronaut) in darkness andvacuum and sub-zero temperatures.But tell me this - where did the film come from? There is a moderateamount of discussion about film and video equipment, it is clear thatmuch of what we are looking at is film not video (video could betransmitted back, but film is a physical medium and the filmsthemselves needed to be retrieved and developed), so one of theastronauts carts a bag of film to the Russian craft before he takes off- and then it crashes into the command module, destroying both craft.So the film he was carrying never made it back to Earth. So where didthe 84 hours of found footage come from, and how did they make thismovie? All it needed was a few words of explanation at the end (eg.Apollo 19 visited, photographed from orbit, picked up the bag of films,didn't land). They blew it, right at the end.

Prime_be_with_you 2012-05-19 19:44:46

Not a bad Horror movie, but not a good one either.

We are shown the reason why we never went back to the moon in GonzaloLópez-Gallego's Sci-Fi Horror Thriller, Apollo 18. Lets start with thepositive aspects. Well first of all the movie has a great premise, tomake a FOUND FOOTAGE Horror movie in space. The film also has some goodcreepy moments, like the shot of the dead Cosmonaut. The maincharacters in the movie aren't dumb either, which is good since that'sone thing that always bugs people like myself about Horror movies iswhen people act dumb. Now on to the negative aspects. Although the characters are not dumb,they're not memorable either. They're not boring, but there's nothingthat makes them stand out from other Horror movie protagonists. Thealiens aren't threatening either and certain plot points are eitherridicules or don't make any sense, like the twist about why theastronauts were sent to the moon. Overall this movie is worth checking out, just don't expect amasterpiece.

TheLittleSongbird 2012-05-19 02:51:12

Seemed intriguing, but never takes off

Apollo 18 actually did seem interesting, it was a good concept and itis the kind of movie I do like watching. I have seen worse from thegenre and I have seen worse movies, both from this year and ever. Iwill give Apollo 18 for the visuals, they are absolutely great and thebest and pretty much the only redeeming value of the movie. However,the movie is badly written in that scenes and bits of dialogue don'tflow very well from one bit to another. Also the ending, it was far tooshort and too rushed. The acting was okay I guess, but the actorsdidn't have much to work from and the characters I just couldn't careabout. Just like how some of the film is constructed thecharacterisations seemed very shallow and clichéd. The story is notjust predictable, it is also really flabby, it starts off good, slowsdown in the middle, grinds to a halt and by the time the ending comesthere was not much time left and they rushed it off. Consequently, thetension and suspense levels are disappointingly low. In conclusion,never takes off and very disappointing considering the potential. 2/10Bethany Cox

mm-39 2012-05-19 04:08:23

Another Blair Witch style of movie!

I liked Apollo 18! Apollo 18 is another Blair Witch documentary stylemovie. What worked for Apollo 18 is the story. The moon mission is ablack opts mission run by the defense department. What the astronautsdo not know, and my guess the Defense Department did, was their landingsite is close to where a failed Soviet mission landed. Events for theAmericans go from strange to bad over time. By the time the Americansfigure out what is going on we have a very exciting ending for themovie. I give Apollo 18 7 out of 10. I found the story with the moonlanding pictures exciting and worth watching. Nothing beats a goodstory.

mcgregor34 2012-05-18 06:40:41

Pretty good actually

I watched the movie yesterday. It's Blair witch in space mixed withAlien and Paranormal Activity for the view angle. All in all, it isn'tso bad. I kinda enjoyed it, but I LOVE space related movies, so maybeI'm not objective. The acting is OK, even if unshaved astronauts in the70's are unlikely. A little bit too many poor FX : mainly fake staticon camera. Fake static is OK if not used too often, but in this movieit's like every ten seconds, I mean, come on. One of my favorite moviesare the star treks and 2001.tl;dr : It's neither really frightening, nor gruesome. Not boring.Worth watching it.

lacrossezombie 2012-05-17 19:07:36

Not worth your time.

I went into this movie with high expectations. Two people told me itwas very good and extremely scary, so I figured I would really enjoyit. However, as soon as it started I knew I wouldn't like it. The storyis of the Apollo 18 space shuttle and the "problem" it encounters onthe moon. It may sound cool, but there just isn't enough to keep you onthe edge of your seat. They use the "real life footage" type of cameraangles, which for the movies I've seen is good (Blair Witch, forexample) but I felt this was just too much of an obscure topic to makeone of these for. One in space? It just doesn't seem to fit. However,it works o.k., but it could've done better without it. Also, the scaresjust aren't up to par with other horror movies. The movie tends to relyon the pop up fright technique, and after the first one you just getused to it and it is no longer scary. The movie was also fairly boringand I felt myself looking at my phone waiting for the movie to be over.There is not enough action and fairly little suspense to keep youmotivated in finishing it, and what there is of that is just notenough. Now I am not a person that needs action in a movie, but when Iwatch a movie like this I expect some type of it. This had very little.However, the last ten minutes or so were exciting and were the bestparts of the film altogether. If the whole film was that good it wouldhave been a better film, but it wasn't. I recommend it for anyone intoaliens or those types of horror movies like Paranormal Activity orBlair Witch Project, but even those people will be disappointed. I giveit 4/10.

Daniel Dercksen 2012-05-17 05:18:20

A frightening journey

If you put Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity through ablender, the result is this frightening journey into the realm ofastronauts and their 'real-life' encounters on the moon. Directed byGonzalo Lopez-Gallego and produced by Timur Bekmambetov, the sci-fihorror centers around a fictional premise of an actual Apollo 18mission that was launched in December 1974, that supposedly neverreturned and as a result, signified the real reason why the UnitedStates never commissioned another expedition to the Moon. It is awell-made film that is gripping in its style and will draw you deeperinto the unknown. The reality of what really happened is overshadowedby the immense possibility of what could have happened. This is whatmakes it so intriguing, the fact that there is no distinction betweenthe what if and the what did.

Kirk Wagstaff 2012-05-17 01:30:23

One of the worst films I've ever seen in the cinema

With terrible special effects, wooden acting, uninspired characters,Apollo 18 is nothing short of a travesty of the highest order.Nothing in Apollo 18 is new or inspiring, borrowing heavily from other"found footage" titles such as Paranormal Activity. Yet it cannot matchthe tension built. The characters are so dull and unlikable, you won'tcare what happens to them. Just showing a video of one of them at thestart with a family doesn't make you care about them. There is asequence near the end of the film which is so bad it could bereplicated using Microsoft Powerpoint. And the scares, with very few of them, are disappointingly non-scary.The aliens, not very threatening or enthralling. Apollo 18, is nothingyou've not seen before.

melapiro 2012-05-16 05:05:18

Should have gone to see The Help instead!!

Want to know what Apollo 18 is about? Alien + Blair Witch Project =Apollo 18. Some parts were so ridiculous that I actually laughed outloud. What a complete waste of time! Well, on second thought, maybe nota complete waste - it was good for a laugh or two. I rarely spend moneygoing to a movie in these rough economic times, and this is a primeexample of why. Why spend eight bucks for a disappointment when I canget the same disappointment from a Red Box for a buck? I definitelyshould have read some reviews on this one before going to see it! I dohave my own tastes when it comes to story lines. Just because someoneelse says something is good or bad doesn't necessarily mean I'll agree.However, on this one, trust me. It's bad!

willworkman 2012-05-15 23:41:02

Unscary and unoriginal

The "found footage" gimmick has become a staple of horror movies eversince The Blair Witch Project in 1999 (or really, since the more twistyand more entertaining movie "The Last Broadcast," released a yearearlier). "Found footage" gives a claustrophobic field of vision,hand-held jumpiness, and characters dying suggestivelyoff-screen––perfect tools for a director trying to build suspense.Grainy black and white is a bonus, too.So it's a real disappointment that Apollo 18 can't conjure up a singlescare with this technique. The fault isn't the camera work though, it'sthe writing. The characters are dull stand-ins for real people, withouta single interesting twist. There's one attempt at humanizing back-chatwhen one astronaut tells another about getting chili pepper on hispenis; it falls completely flat and the writers seemed too embarrassedto try it again. The plot just marches along like a conveyor belt. Something is movingon the moon, but when the astronauts look out the window, all they seeis...rocks. Could it be? Yes, rocks that sprout unconvincing CGI legs,but only after they've been brought into the lunar module in baggies(the real Apollo missions had airtight sample boxes to preventcontamination). Let's see, what else? A destroyed Russian module justlike in the Thing and Alien? Check. Infected guy growing scarier andless stable? Check. And NASA knew about the monsters the whole time?THEY KNEW? Check. Worst of all is that the astronauts seem to have had no emergencytraining at all; no protocol for an injured crew member, no policyabout not letting infected crew back into the orbiter, not evenstanding instructions in case of communications failure. (Or maybe theydid, and it consisted of yelling "Houston can you hear me? Houston, canyou hear me?" into the radio fifty times.) It's like they sent threeWalmart greeters to the moon.If you still think this format has any merit, watch Cloverfield or TheLast Broadcast instead. Better yet, go all the way back to 1947, to aradio episode of "Suspense" called "Ghost Hunt." This terrific littlechiller involves a broadcaster who disappears while investigating ahaunted house, and the recording tape they later find...

talentedripples 2012-05-15 10:40:03

Suspending Disbelief

Apollo 18, supposedly the final shuttle mission to the moon, collatedfrom real footage of a real mission by NASA. The trailer easily invitesviewers in with a question: Why didn't we go back to the moon? It's asimple enough thing to ask, citing curiosity and a chance to enter aworld of fiction.Yes. Apollo 18 can only be fiction. Real footage does not require aDirector and the actors are listed in another films as well. Also, nolife can be sustained upon the Moon. there is no atmosphere because themoon's mass is too small to create gravity and without gravity youcan't have atmosphere. So how are alien spiders running around themoon? also the astronauts walk around as normal, shuffling even. NASAmost likely abandoned going to the moon because it's not possible toterraform it.As long as you suspend your disbelief and take the movie for what itreally is - fun fiction - then Apollo 18 is a good thriller. The movieis filmed on video creating a grainy quality with a hand held camera tocreate a more realistic atmosphere. Although lacking in great splashesof action, the movie is short and concise pushing the story along at aneven pace.Suspend your disbelief and you find yourself in a thrilling mysterytwisted with betrayal and fear. Apollo 18 is a good movie as long asyou ignore the silly claim that it could possibly be real. On the wholeit is very enjoyable and moves along at a very good pace.