Iron Sky was one of the most buzzed about films ahead of this year's Berlin film festival, but many critics (including my colleague Andrew Pulver) found the reality of Finnish director Timo Vuorensola's Nazis-in-space comedy rather less satisfying than its enticing premise promised. Just as with another highly hyped fanboy-fuelled movie that wound up disappointing, Samuel L Jackson romp Snakes on a Plane, there were suggestions that the assistance of thousands of amateur collaborators via the online Wreckamovie community hindered rather than helped the film.
Iron Sky posits the preposterous but intriguing possibility that the Nazis discovered anti-gravity technology in the final months of the second world war and hightailed it off to Earth's satellite, where they've been preparing for an invasion ever since. In the year 2018, with the US led by president Sarah Palin, they are ready to return. The former Alaska governor's supposed involvement flags up the inherent difficulties with producing a film that has been gestating for at least six years while crowdfunding is secured and the storyline slowly pieced together: there's little currency in satire that is well past its sell-by date.
Vuorensola and his Iron Sky colleagues were previously best known for their series of Star Trek spoofs, many of which can be found on YouTube. The final instalment, Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning, was produced in 2005 as a full-length movie by five friends in a small flat with the help of a few hundred fans.
Outside involvement has also helped Iron Sky make it to the big screen: producer Tero Kaukomaa says fans are to thank for helping the £6.2m film to achieve distribution in more than 70 countries worldwide. "The crowd is an unstoppable force," he says. "Our fans are getting active in the countries that do not have distribution in place yet. Our fans include staff and owners at movie theatres in many places around the world, who have come directly to us to arrange a screening." Meanwhile, the trailer for the film has clocked up more than 7m views on YouTube.
One aspect of Iron Sky that did receive plenty of praise was the bravura opening in which two American astronauts wind up discovering the Fourth Reich moon base while hunting for the rare helium-3 isotope. It has now been posted online in all its four-and-a-half-minute CGI-heavy glory in an effort to pique filmgoers' interest ahead of the movie's UK release on 20 April. While it's rather unfortunate that the latest Transformers film ploughed a pretty similar furrow, Vuorensola's depiction of the moon base and its inhabitants remains hugely impressive for a film shot on such a low budget.
