Movie Review: First Man

I just saw the movie First Man, and this is news about about the strength of its musical score, and a comparison of musicals.

Let me get started with the review of First Man. The movie retells the age old story of Neil Armstrong going to the Moon. I'm actually surprised the movie hasn't been told yet. It's something that we all are told when we are young.

With many people already knowing the story, the director Damien Chazelle works with the material he has. First Man goes over the first 11 Gemini missions, as well as the Apollo 11 program. The flag planting was removed. It's the background thoughts in Armstrong's head that are shown. The doubts in my head related to the centre of mass (antigravity) were checked, but there was no issue. You can watch the real moon landing in Youtube and it's nearly similar.

It's not like you haven't seen science fiction movies with space travel and moon landing. But this tends to be realistic and is not science fiction. The movie introduces special effects after consultation and creates vivid scenes.

Like I mentioned, the flag planting was removed. Donald Trump's response was that it's almost like they are embarrassed of the achievements coming out of America. I think he might have been scared by the short segments featuring the social class resisting the movement because of the high cost. Damien Chazelle said that the removal was not a political statement, and I agree. He just avoided a political mess-up, because replicating the moon landing sequence in the same way believe it or not also was part of the visual effects team. The practical effects I think.

First Man covers the social life of Neil, and it also shows the political resistance coming along from the minor class people. Both movies First Man and La La Land are acted by the male lead Ryan Gosling. Ryan Gosling plays a terrific and convincing role, more on an emotional level than La La Land ever could. La La Land was a duet, but this movie is a solo. He does have his family so it's not completely a solo character.

The movie mainly runs with the strength of the score. The score is not even nominated for Best Original Score in the Oscars, but won a Golden Globes Award. Justin Hurwitz created the score, just like La La Land. People didn't want an #OscarsSoWhite drama so they didn't nominate Justin Hurwitz this year for First Man, even if he deserved it more.

Speaking of La La Land, La La Land was a better movie than Moonlight, even though it doesn't have any social advantage. Damien Chazelle is the same director of La La Land and First Man, which is amazing. I think La La Land should be compared to the original A Star is Born, instead of making another A Star is Born.

As I said, First Man, Damien Chazelle, and Justin Hurwitz deserved to be nominated for their roles in the movie. The only nomination and win was for Best Visual Effects.

That's it for now, SkateLane Booting Out