Apollo 13 (Wide Screen) > Reviews > Should Have Been Called Apollo 12a

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Outstanding
How does it compare to similar films?	Not applicable

Advantages:	Ron Howard has done his homework to bring us a realistic film showing the true events of this sad Apollo mission .
Disadvantages:	I cannot see any .  This film contains great actors acting at their best !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This Ron Howard directed film is based on the true events surrounding Apollo 13’s mission to the moon, which sadly had to be aborted due to an explosion in the oxygen tank.

It goes into the lives of each of the Astronauts as they build up to mission launch.

The astronauts, Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks), Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) and Ken Mattingly (Gary Sinise), go through the usual checks and tests.
It is found that one of the back-up crew has developed measles and as Ken Mattingly has never had the measles he is told he cannot go, so they bring in reserve astronaut, Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon).

Take-off goes well as does the LLM extraction (the un-docking and re-docking of the Lunar Landing Module).

Suddenly they hear a loud bang and discover they are leaking oxygen.

“Houston, we have a problem.”

They will not be going to the moon.

The rest of the film deals with mission control trying to bring them home safely.
Flight director, Gene Kranz, played by Ed Harris, has a race against time and all odds to come up with accurate instructions for the disheartened Apollo crew.

I first saw this film a few years ago and it also happens to be my boyfriends favourite film of all time so he brought it on DVD.

He watches it over and over again and as you can imagine, I too have to endure endless showings.

In a way, these multiple viewings have made me look at the film in a different light.
I have begun to feel sadness for the astronauts, not just because they ‘lost the moon’ but also because the American public and television networks were no longer interested in space travel and landings on the moon.

I felt Ken Mattingly's disappointment when he was told he would not be going but relieved for him after the tragic explosion.

I know that many astronauts are best remembered for being first to orbit the moon and of course Neil Armstrong’s famous moon walk, but these men from Apollo 13 have to be remembered for their great courage.

At the time, I was a child so I was unaware of the events that were taking place out in space but I know now that I would want to follow similar missions.

I also wonder if events would have turned out differently if they had named it Apollo 12a or jumped straight to Apollo 14 but that is me just being superstitious because they eventually found out that an electrical fault caused the explosion.

So to sum the film up; it is a film that is so well acted that at times I thought I was watching the real astronauts.
The effects were brilliant as well and the most memorable for me is that the actors actually experienced real weightlessness.

If you have not seen it yet I encourage you to rent it, you will not be disappointed.

The DVD has some extra features which I found very interesting. They include interviews with the cast and production notes and also a theatrical trailer.