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Review: First Man (2018)
I'm not sure if I've said this before, but I'm not the biggest fan of biopics, and this film went exactly how I expected it to. I also don't really have much interest in the American space race, nor do I know too much about American space history, so this movie didn't particularly feel too significant to me. Style wise, the movie was fine, but its content wasn't enough to engage me.
Spoilers.
Story
I struggle with liking biopics because I never seem to figure out what the story is. I guess the story is just about how Neil Armstrong went to the moon, but did he go through any emotional journey? Did he grow? I'm not sure that was communicated too well. I guess the movie was bracketed by the death of Neil's daughter and him coming to terms with letting her go, but I don't feel that that point was really emphasized well enough in a consistent manner.
Some people may say "it's a real person's story, it shouldn't be viewed like fiction." Well then, it shouldn't be turned into a movie which is supposed to be enjoyed for entertainment purposes. Not everybody has a movie-worthy life, and that's fine, because real life and fiction are separate. There is stuff I love on fiction that I wouldn't want in real life.
Back to First Man, up until the first half of the movie, I thought the story would be about how Neil deals with the death of his comrades in the space race. His wife had mentioned that when he was a pilot, quite a few coworkers had passed away as well.
At about the half way point, the financial stress of the space program became more apparent, and the focus of the movie angled a bit towards whether the space program was worth it, worth the money, worth the deaths. I do think this would be a more interesting as the main overarching plot line.
Which I guess leads back to my problem with this biopic. What is the overarching plot line? I couldn't really tell, and I tend to not be able to tell when it comes to biopics in general.
I guess the story was more factual than it was emotional, and because of that, I wasn't very emotionally engaged.
Production
The direction style of the movie was fine, but because of my lack of interest in the content, I just wasn't paying as much attention to the movie in general.
There were parts of the movie that I felt were going for the ultra-realistic look, with fast movements between subjects to mimic eyesight, but frankly that sort of stuff is what bothers me about biopics and dramatic films in general, the attempt to make things as realistic as possible.
I think most of the production budget probably went to the sets for the space scenes, both when conducting trials in the facilities, and on the actual tests. There were space suits, complicated machinery, etc.
Characters
Neil as a person wasn't very interesting. Like I mentioned, I think the film went through his acceptance of his daughter's death, but it wasn't a point that was really hammered home. What were the steps he took that made him finally come to terms with her death? Why was putting her bracelet on the moon so significant for that acceptance? I really didn't feel like we had much to work with.
Neil in general wasn't a very talkative person, which isn't a problem, except there isn't a whole lot of screen time spent on him when he isn't speaking, so we miss out on a lot of opportunities to see what he's really like when he's not speaking.
The other main characters would be his wife Janet and the other fellows at the space program.
Like Neil, Janet isn't super talkative. We see them have a couple of spats, mostly related to the stress from the space program. When Neil's coworkers die, or when he's possibly ging to die, Janet gets upset at Neil. But then everything comes together in the end? I suppose Janet's concerns were more about Neil returning back, but then that turns Janet into more of an extension of Neil rather than her own person, which is kind of a waste.
As for those at the space program (yes, I am grouping them all together), I would not say that they had a particularly big impression on me. I have no recollection of who they are as individuals, and they all acted more as plot devices.
Overall
I feel a bit bad because I already had preconceived biases against biopics, but this biopic didn't give me anything to believe otherwise. The simple way to put it is that I didn't enjoy it, and I didn't find anything about it that drew me in.
Spoilers.
Story
I struggle with liking biopics because I never seem to figure out what the story is. I guess the story is just about how Neil Armstrong went to the moon, but did he go through any emotional journey? Did he grow? I'm not sure that was communicated too well. I guess the movie was bracketed by the death of Neil's daughter and him coming to terms with letting her go, but I don't feel that that point was really emphasized well enough in a consistent manner.
Some people may say "it's a real person's story, it shouldn't be viewed like fiction." Well then, it shouldn't be turned into a movie which is supposed to be enjoyed for entertainment purposes. Not everybody has a movie-worthy life, and that's fine, because real life and fiction are separate. There is stuff I love on fiction that I wouldn't want in real life.
Back to First Man, up until the first half of the movie, I thought the story would be about how Neil deals with the death of his comrades in the space race. His wife had mentioned that when he was a pilot, quite a few coworkers had passed away as well.
At about the half way point, the financial stress of the space program became more apparent, and the focus of the movie angled a bit towards whether the space program was worth it, worth the money, worth the deaths. I do think this would be a more interesting as the main overarching plot line.
Which I guess leads back to my problem with this biopic. What is the overarching plot line? I couldn't really tell, and I tend to not be able to tell when it comes to biopics in general.
I guess the story was more factual than it was emotional, and because of that, I wasn't very emotionally engaged.
Production
The direction style of the movie was fine, but because of my lack of interest in the content, I just wasn't paying as much attention to the movie in general.
There were parts of the movie that I felt were going for the ultra-realistic look, with fast movements between subjects to mimic eyesight, but frankly that sort of stuff is what bothers me about biopics and dramatic films in general, the attempt to make things as realistic as possible.
I think most of the production budget probably went to the sets for the space scenes, both when conducting trials in the facilities, and on the actual tests. There were space suits, complicated machinery, etc.
Characters
Neil as a person wasn't very interesting. Like I mentioned, I think the film went through his acceptance of his daughter's death, but it wasn't a point that was really hammered home. What were the steps he took that made him finally come to terms with her death? Why was putting her bracelet on the moon so significant for that acceptance? I really didn't feel like we had much to work with.
Neil in general wasn't a very talkative person, which isn't a problem, except there isn't a whole lot of screen time spent on him when he isn't speaking, so we miss out on a lot of opportunities to see what he's really like when he's not speaking.
The other main characters would be his wife Janet and the other fellows at the space program.
Like Neil, Janet isn't super talkative. We see them have a couple of spats, mostly related to the stress from the space program. When Neil's coworkers die, or when he's possibly ging to die, Janet gets upset at Neil. But then everything comes together in the end? I suppose Janet's concerns were more about Neil returning back, but then that turns Janet into more of an extension of Neil rather than her own person, which is kind of a waste.
As for those at the space program (yes, I am grouping them all together), I would not say that they had a particularly big impression on me. I have no recollection of who they are as individuals, and they all acted more as plot devices.
Overall
I feel a bit bad because I already had preconceived biases against biopics, but this biopic didn't give me anything to believe otherwise. The simple way to put it is that I didn't enjoy it, and I didn't find anything about it that drew me in.