Brian's Review - Apollo 18

In space, no one can hear you snore.

Released: 2011
Genre(s): Sci-Fi, Horror, Thriller

Since the infamous "The Blair Witch Project" made shaky, Handycam/home surveillance/security camera-style movies cool in 1999, idiots - I mean audiences have been flocking to theaters in droves to check out every new entry into this genre, no matter the similarities to all previous offerings. The one trick pony gimmick of "this super-secret footage was magically found in a government dumpster and then was conveniently edited to match a typical audience's expected attention span" has become tedious and overdone, with filmmakers trying to pass off more and more preposterous ideas as conspiracies the authorities want to cover up. "Apollo 18" is the latest addition to this endless flow of mindless sludge, this time spinning a space angle into the mix. While I couldn't completely dislike this movie, as the production value was fairly decent (most notably the footage in the very beginning, designed to imitate 1970's film), I couldn't help but feel jilted by the lack of scares in something that was billed as a "horror" - for that matter, I felt a bit jilted by the lack of any form of excitement in something that was billed as a "movie." There isn't any real buildup here, so when the main characters actually start facing off with what can only be described as "some of the least impressive antagonists in recent memory," the thrill is nothing more than a minor distraction from all the nothingness happening out in space. The film really could have capitalized on the claustrophobic setting of the astronauts' spacecraft, but instead uses its multitude of camera angles to showcase the most mundane of activities. While the acting is decent, there's little for the actors to react to - very few things that happen actually serve a purpose to the advancement of the story, making the whole movie simply feel lost in space.

Rating (out of 5): 1.5