Apollo 13 Review

Welcome to the fourth movie of my Oscar Marathon, which will continue until February 27, 2012. The film I shall be reviewing today is Apollo 13, a film that many people say should have won Best Picture in 1995, but it had lost to "Braveheart". It's a true story starring Tom Hanks about, what else? The Apollo 13 mission. So, without any further ado, here's 1995's Best Picture nominee, Apollo 13:

Apollo 13 is the ultimate subtle film, a film that knows it's a space film, but it doesn't shove it in our faces. It's entertaining, well written, well acted, and just an awesome film in general. Ron Howard really shows us a great film, filled with everything we could ask for, with the side effect of a few minor flaws here and there. Ever since then, plenty of space films tried to copy it's formula, but none of them had the substance and charisma that this film has. It makes the film feel not as "Based on a True Story" but as if you're actually ON Apollo 13 with these characters, feeling the suspense all the way. It's just very memorable and very cool. The story is basically a recreation of the Apollo 13 moon mission, which ended up failing because of technical error. It really doesn't lead to any surprises or uncertainty, but those don't seem as necessarily as, for the most part, this is a calm film, no real action or scares, just some suspense. The characters were... pretty good. The main character, Jim Lovell, played by Tom Hanks, is a great character, and so is his wife, but the two other pilots, although likable, are not focused on much. It's not THAT big a problem, as it's intentions was to follow the main character, the other 2 characters, although also likable, aren't the main focus. However, it would be nice to know more about the other 2 characters, but we do learn a bit about their personalities during the actual mission. The acting was also good. Tom Hanks was not really disguising himself as anyone, he wasn't Forrest Gump or Woody, he was pretty much just being himself, and I actually respect him for that, as he did do a good job in this film. Also, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, and Kathleen Quinlan all did great. Now, usually I don't discuss this in great detail, but I feel I must talk about the special effects, and in my opinion, they were very well done. Sure, some parts, it was completely obvious the special effects were CGI, but for most of the movie, they looked really cool, almost like they were really there. They aren't the best special effects ever, but for the time, they must have looked OUTSTANDING. Now, for my favorite part of the review, "The Best and Worst of Apollo 13". The best part of this movie... Even though I'm tempted to say the cinematography, I'll have to say the atmosphere. Why you ask? Well, let me give an example: When the 3 characters are escaping the earths atmosphere and rocketing into space, you FEEL as if the characters are actually blasting into space, it makes the film seem more like an experience than just a film. The worst thing about this film is probably the other two main characters. Like I said, they're likable and all, but most of the focus seems to be on Hanks, which is OK, but in the end, you barely felt like you got to know the other two, so that got me a little angry, but to tell you the truth, the rest of the movie was pretty awesome. I really enjoyed it for the execution of the story, the effects, and of course, the experience itself. Also, in my opinion, this is one of the best disaster films of all time, even surpassing Titanic! So overall, this is an excellent film, well worthy of a watch.

5/5