I would like to dedicate this review to Neema Vedadi, you really ticked me off with your recent comments on the podcast about your lack of knowledge of James Bond’s weaponry. After I had done such a big write up on the subject here.

Also, if shows like law and order statist victim unit and other TV shows are too statist for you then this movie will probably be right up your alley.

I had been wanting to see this movie for years, I have been keeping track of it since shortly after it was first announced. I stumbled upon it when I was doing research on what was up until a month ago, the craziest conspiracy theory I had ever heard. The theory that a secret Nazi space program had developed functional flying saucers and established some kind of deep space empire.

I wanted to see this movie in a theater, but the area where I live seems to be full of theaters with some kind of vendetta against independent or even quality films. So I had to download it via iTunes, I can’t help but get the feeling that I would have enjoyed seeing this movie even more if I had seen it on the big screen.

The movie gets off to an interesting start, with a US government manned mission to the moon, which is primarily a big publicity stunt to reelect the president, who is a doppelgänger of Sarah Palin.

This gets into one of the main criticisms of this movie, that it is anti-American and especially anti Republican Party. It is, but in all fairness I believe that it would not have required much of a script change to have the president played by a Barack Obama or Hillary Clintonesque character. In one very important scene someone at the United Nations shouts, “You Lie!” at the president. What I took from the movie was that it wasn’t specifically anti-American or even anti republican but critical of all governments. Trying not to give away a major plot point here but whatever “criminal” acts committed by the US government in this movie are matched by the rest of the worlds governments.

Another important plot point is the mindset of the female lead of this movie, personalities are formed by their environment, regardless of genetics if you are born in France you will grow up speaking French and generally have the mindset of a French citizen. If you are born in North Korea then you will have the mindset of a hardcore communist. And if you are born in an environment where you are living with a bunch of Nazis, then you will be a Nazi. And as has been reflected by North Korean escapees, when you get out of an environment that is that control oriented and toxic it will have a dramatic effect on your psyche. This characters time away from her home takes the plot in a direction I really enjoyed.

This movie also included remarkably good special effects for a crowd sourced movie, heck the special effects seemed pretty good for a Hollywood movie. I must admit the quality of this movie gives me high hopes about the upcoming Grey State movie. I do have a couple of quibbles, but this is a movie about space Nazis, so a suspension of disbelief is required.

Once again, I am trying to avoid major plot spoilers, but this is possibly the most anti state movie I have ever seen, even more than the Atlas Shrugged movies. When the moon Nazis attack the president is nearly ecstatic, “all presidents who start a war in their first term get reelected.” An overarching theme of is movie is the simple statement that war is the health of the state. It wasn’t until relatively recently that I heard this articulated, but I should have realized it sooner if only because after 9/11 George Bush’s approval rate was something like 92%. I imagine that Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s approval rating was absurdly high after Pearl Harbor. Regardless of how you may feel about either of these events and the conspiracy theories that swirl around them when you use critical thinking it doesn’t make much sense that whoever was in charge would have a high approval rating after such a disaster. If you came home from a night out with your wife and you found your children badly injured and half your house burned down would you have a high opinion of the babysitter who allowed violent arsonists to walk unchallenged right into your house?

All up, I rate this movie at 5 out of 5