Fly Me to the Moon Movie Review

  

Fly Me to the Moon

Director: Greg Berlanti

Stars: Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson & Woody Harrelson

Runtime: 2 hours 12 mins

Genre: Space Race romantic comedy

Fly Me to the Moon, an Apple Original originally had actor Jason Bateman attached to direct, however he left over creative differences, so Greg Berlanti took the helm. This is Berlanti's first movie in six years with his last movie Love, Simon being an Indie hit. The movie was also supposed to be the re-teaming of Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson but Evans pulled out owing to scheduling conflicts on Red One so Tatum took the role.

 

Let’s Break it down…

 

Story and Plot

During the 1960s Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union, after a meet-cute at a roadside diner, a relationship develops between Cole Davis (Tatum) the NASA flight director in charge of the Apollo 11 launch and Kelly Jones (Johansson) the marketing specialist brought in to fix NASA's public image and stage a just in case "back-up" fake moon landing.

 

My overall thoughts...

I have a soft spot for any movie about NASA and the Space Race, whilst this movie uses the Space Race as the backdrop it is a revisionist version of history whilst also being a rom-com. 

Rom-coms back in the 80's and 90's ruled the box office with hits such as When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle & Whilst You Were Sleeping. As a genre thanks to the likes of movies such as Anyone But You ($219M worldwide BO against a $25M budget) released in December last year, it is starting to make a comeback at the box office. 

I'm happy to report that Fly Me to the Moon continues this trend, I enjoyed the movie. Whist it’s not a great movie it’s solid enough. It has an engaging story, has some really funny parts. It has a good cast which is well led by Tatum and Johansson. It’s also nicely shot and makes the movie feel evocative of the era.

My issues with the movie is there were some pacing issues, especially in the third act which made the movie feel too long. They could have shaved 10-15 minutes off the run time. There are also some tonal inconsistencies, one minute it’s firmly in rom-com territory then swerves more into a drama.

 

Cast

Channing Tatum has had a fairly busy few years, showing up in movies as much in cameo appearances (Bullet Train & Free Guy) as well as movies in his own right such as The Lost City, and Magic Mike's Last Dance and Dog. Here he very much veers back into the The Lost City territory with another rom-com. 

For some the jury is still out on how good an actor Tatum is, but I enjoyed him in this movie. He was well suited to the role of Cole Davis the flight director haunted by the Apollo 1 launch pad disaster. He has excellent chemistry with Johansson. Tatum is a good fit as I actually think given the history of Chris Evan's and Scarlett Johansson in the MCU seeing them romantically involved may have been a bit jarring for some audiences.

 

Scarlett Johansson is the consummate professional, equally at home in a big tent pole blockbuster such as next year's Gareth Edwards helmed Jurassic World sequel or in little known indie movies. She is excellent in the movie and is really its main star. She is gorgeous as ever and out-acts Tatum at every turn. 

 

Veteran actor Woody Harrelson (who serves as the stories narrator of sorts) plays Moe a mysterious government liaison between NASA and Nixon’s administration, he clearly had fun in this role that showed his lighter side.

 

Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond) is also excellent as Henry Smalls, Davis’s right hand man.

Finally special mention to Noah Robbins and Donald Elise Watkins as the two endearing NASA engineers and Anna Garcia as Kelly's plucky and funny assistant. 

 

Cinematography & Effects

DP Dariusz Wolski (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Martian & Napoleon) provides the cinematography for the movie. He does a fantastic job of recreating the look and feel of the 1960's Apollo era. Using real footage and archival TV clips such as the legendary announcement by TV news anchor man Walter Kronkite.

The movie had a nice blend of VFX, CGI and in-camera effects to recreate the Apollo space mission and Kennedy Space Center during that era. Whilst you can see they used cutting edge tech to recreate certain aspects of how the movie looked, it never felt too heavy on the CGI

 

On screen Action

It’s no surprise to learn that the action in Fly Me to the Moon is well, based around flying to the moon. Detailing the building up to, launch of and landing of Apollo 11. For a NASA and space nut like myself, who has visited Kennedy Space Center and had the privilege of seeing the Space Shuttle launch in 2005, I lapped it up. The action is well shot and faithful to the real life events, even though there is a fictional storyline running throughout. 

 

Music, Score & Sound

Daniel Pemberton provides the score which I really enjoyed, at times evoking James Horner’s Apollo 13 iconic score. 

The movie also has great sound design with the rocket launches.

There are some nice 1960’s needle drops throughout, and yes “Fly Me to the Moon” is used but unfortunately not sung by Ol’ Blue Eyes himself.

 

Fly Me to the Moon is a charming Space Race based yarn with great turns from both Tatum and Johansson. Whilst it’s a tad too long and suffers from tonal inconsistencies it’s a solid movie which will play well to a wide audience. 

Verdict  - Good not Great