Review: Iron Sky: The Coming Race (2019)

If you like a good trashy B-movie, then you are probably aware of Timo Vuorensola’s 2012 Sci-Fi romp Iron Sky.  In that unashamedly silly film, the plot revolved around a group of Nazis who escaped from Earth at the end of the WWII, and settled on the Moon.  70 years later they return to Earth in an attempt to conquer it.  Iron Sky: The Coming Race, is the crowdfunded follow up, with a similarly ludicrous mindset.

In this instalment, the story has skipped forward 29 years, and the nuclear war between Earth and the Moon has left Earth a wasteland, with all the survivors cooped up together on the Moon base.  In theory, Renate (Julia Dietze), from the first film, runs the base, but in all pragmatic terms it is her daughter Obi (Lara Rossi – Robin Hood, Crossing Lines) doing all the work.  As the years have passed, a religion around Steve Jobs, Jobsism, has sprung up, and these ‘elite’ keep themselves apart from the general populace.  Out of the blue, a ship of refugees from Earth, led by Sasha (Vladimir Burkalov) appears, with a mysterious stowaway on board.

As a fan of B-movie schlock nonsense, such as Troma, I have no problem with a ludicrous plot, or half-baked idiocy.  There needs to be a certain knowing sensibility behind it though that keeps it on track and doesn’t take itself too seriously; even then, it is sometimes easy for films of this ilk to cross the line.  In Iron Sky: The Coming Race, they certainly know how silly things are, and have no pretentions of being high art.

They have crammed in some very silly things too.  As per usual we get some Moon Nazis, but also some re-writing of evolutionary history, some hard Sci-Fi concepts, and Hitler riding a dinosaur.  With those in place they are definitely playing to the target audience, and it will go down well.

Sadly though, I think the myriad elements have made it a jumble and some of the weaker ideas undermine the whole.  For instance, there are jokes and plot elements, such as the whole ‘Jobsism’ thing that don’t really work and are too obvious a target to have any proper weight.  For me this could have worked as a smaller part of the overarching story, but takes up too much time here.  Similarly, there are parts and references that are a good idea on paper, but aren’t entirely successful.  The Hollow Earth idea never quite reaches its potential, even though it could have been really great.

On the plus side, the underlying concept is still sound, and there are things which strike the right tone and work very well.  The effects still punch far above their weight, and the old school steampunk tech holds its charm.  The moon base itself is also still an intriguing idea, and there is scope for some further stories to be told in this world.  The teaser at the end, for example, shows a potential way forward that could bring it back on course.

Strangely, I found that it is some of the more ludicrous ideas that really hit the mark, rather than the obvious ones.  It is therefore the missed opportunities that are most frustrating.  There are a lot of ideas that could have come together to make a really solid piece, but it’s too piecemeal to fully gel.  There are a lot of great parts in there, and it might have been better to focus on a few rather than all of them.  But, having said that, it is still an enjoyable comic romp and there will be a lot of people who this connects with.