Iron Sky: The Coming Race (Movie Review)

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

PLOT: A dormant clan of Nazi soldiers stationed on the moon plot an attack on the hidden city of Agartha, located at the center of the Earth.

REVIEW: Seven years after hilariously bombarding Earth with his irreverently raucous sci-fi send up IRON SKY, Russian writer/director Timo Vuorensola returns with an utterly unnecessary and woefully inferior sequel, IRON SKY: THE COMING RACE, a chaotic mess of a movie that not only squanders all of the novelty and charm of the original, not to mention much of the plotted story continuity, but in the end plays as little more than a big, dumb glorified SyFy original…cartoon! It’s a major disappointment for fans of the original that had to wait this long for such listlessly unimpressive results. Perhaps worse, for those who’ve not seen the first flick, nothing about the sequel is bound to conjure the desire to seek out the worthy original to see how it stacks up by comparison. Outside of a few eye-rolling and gut-groaning chuckles, a few decent sets, a drolly watchable pace and a solid central turn from star Lara Rossi, IRON SKY: THE COMING RACE is an inconsequential piece of pabulum that is neither silly nor serious enough to make a lasting impact on anyone halfway sober or older than the age of ten. Indeed, THE COMING RACE is a Dumbing Case if ever there was one!

The flick opens in 2018 with a quasi-flashback to the original film, in which we see the grossly outdated Sarah Palin lookalike, Vril President (Stephanie Paul), as well as a shirtless Russian soldier that immediately smacks of Vladimir Putin. To add to the political flavor of the film, an R&B song called “Make Earth Great Again.” We then cut to the year 2047, where the remaining population that survived the war between humanity and Moon Nazis has found refuge on the space vessel known as Emilia. The size, scale, scope and stature of the spaceship are somewhat impressive to the eye, lending an epic sense even if the interior feels too much like the squalid counterpart to the SNOWPIERCER train. Making her return from the first film is Renate Richter (Julia Dietze), but the true protagonist of the story his her daughter, Obi Washington (Lara Rossi), a brawny and strong-willed soldier willing to do whatever it takes to ensure the survival of her people. Unfortunately at her side is the bumbling idiot Sasha (Vladimir Burlakov), who spouts annoyingly cheesy one-liners that fall flatter than a runway model’s ass throughout the movie. Thankfully, Udo Kier returns in dual roles as Wolfgang Kortzfleisch and a zombified Adolf Hitler, adding much needed deadpan humor with lines like “sieg heil mutterficker!” as he evilly plots to overtake the one remaining city, Agartha, located at the center of Earth.

As the Emilia heads for Agartha, it’s up to Obi and her motley crew to protect the remaining survivors and thwart Hitler’s odious plot of world domination. Those at her side include brawler Malcolm (Kit Dale), who also rifles off a series of unfunny jokes; a techno-guru named Donald (Tom Green) who worships at the altar of Steve Jobs; Deputy Commander Johan (James Quinn) and several other forgettable faces that aren’t worth mentioning. When the vessel touches down in Agartha, Obi and company are mortified to learn that dinosaurs are not only alive and well, but that a zombified Steve Jobs is also present. Also among the Vril Society are risible renderings of Margaret Thatcher, Osama Bin Laden, Genghis Khan, Caligula, Joseph Stalin, and other ill-fated world leaders.

As you can imagine, the movie devolves rather quickly into the realm of cartoonish lunacy, and becomes so silly that nothing about the story can be taken seriously. Which is fine if it were consistently fun, a la the first flick, but alas, the film makes so little sense and more than half the sight-gags and verbal jokes falter so badly that the movies skimpy 83-minute runtime ends up being one of its saving graces. For a movie reportedly made for over $20 million, there’s no excuse for the chintzy CGI and VFX to resemble a ridiculous CROCOSAURUS movie in space. If we were to excuse such, it would have been far better and way more fun if Vuorensola pushed the idiocy even further and made the film so undeniably stupid that it would be impossible not to like. As it is, the movie hovers in the middle ground; not silly or serious enough one way or the other to foster a legitimately fascinating watch.

Among the movies strong suits however is the compelling performance by Rossi, who not only convinces a tough-as-nails heroine, but also shows a level of acting chops her costars, save for Kier, are simply not up to. Kier is always an enjoyable sight to behold, and here has a few guffaw-inducing one-liners as zombie Hitler that is sure to derive a bit of pleasure. The pell-mell, upbeat tempo also works in the movies favor, until it becomes clear that a slapdash production, five years in the making mind you, ends up feeling rushed to its conclusion in the final act. But even the minimal good in the film is heavily outweighed by the bad, of which the level of ineptitude does not go far enough to recommend as a so-bad-it’s-good-must-see. The caricatures of real-life figures play like a ludicrous Epic Rap Battles episode, one we mockingly laugh at rather than with. Again, this comes as a massive disappointment to fans of the original, which actually reveled in the sheer silliness of the premise that it was hard not to enjoy. Like most sequels, IRON SKY: THE COMING RACE is nowhere near as fun, original, or entertaining as its predecessor.