This was absolutely enthralling. Right from the start, you're immediately immersed into the mission, with just a few hours to go before launch. You see final preparations begin, and spectators start to arrive. There's no narrator, or interviews; you're seeing, and hearing what's happening, almost as if you're watching it in real-time with the rest of the world.
It's an odd sensation to be so fully engaged in the launch like that. I see someone two seats over holding his hands up to his face, and sitting at the edge of his seat. My own palms feel sweaty. I know that everything goes smoothly, but the film really captures the moments before, and during the launch with such immediacy that you can't help but feel the emotional impact of it all when the countdown finally hits zero. I actually nearly teared up from watching the liftoff. It's like in that moment, I thought about how much all these people, this country, and even our race had to go through to get to this point.
I can't say everyone will feel the same way I felt watching this, but it was very much a moving experience for me. I saw it on one of the biggest, and best IMAX screens in the country, and I still don't think it was large enough to really capture it all. The imagery, and level of detail of the footage was unreal. The colors were rich, and vibrant, and the clarity of the picture made it feel at times like it was filmed yesterday. The footage in the module, and on the moon are understandably not as good as from the ground, or mission control center, but were still great to see. Some still photography on the moon, with audio, helped fill in some gaps as well.
I really loved the sort of no-hands approach to the documentary, letting the footage and audio mostly speak for themselves. There were a few basic graphics, and animations used to show some of the procedures in space, but otherwise it was all just raw footage, restored, and edited beautifully together. The film was supported strongly by a solid score, which was heavy on the bass, and synth, giving it a sort of 80's action movie vibe, but it worked really well in my opinion.
Many will inevitably think of First Man when watching this. I know one criticism of that film was that it didn't touch on the mission enough, and focused more on Armstrong and his personal life. Well this documentary provides audiences with the mission side of things, and should pair nicely with the film. I actually think this film may lead to a greater appreciation of Chazelle's effort, as he was able to accomplish a lot of the look, and feel of the actual mission quite accurately.
Overall, this is one of the better theatrical experiences I've had in a long while. My theater, which was moderately filled, applauded at the end. I had already felt it from the film itself, but that shared appreciation from watching one our greatest achievements, really brought home that sense that we're all in this together on this planet. I highly recommend watching this in IMAX if you can, but if not, still try and seek it out in theaters.
5/5
Last edited by MifuneFan; 03-01-2019 at 07:27 PM.
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... and I'm sure the (archival) audio has been 'enhanced' as well 
. It was almost refreshing to see new footage of events I'm so familiar with. And the format of the documentary was so different than the others, like you're actually there witnessing it.
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