APOLLO 18 (2011) Review

I only just watched this a few days ago and I have to confess I liked it a lot. I know it's been getting a lot of negative reviews, and it's current score on Rotten Tomatoes is only 22%. But I'm a sucker for found footage films (well most of them) and I thought the format was perfect for this movie.

The film insists that after the last manned flight to the moon in 1972 there was another flight, a secret trip funded by the US Department of Defence. A trio of Astronauts were sent to install devices which would be used to spy on the Russians. But when they got there they uncovered a terrible secret. A Russian lander, the remains of a Cosmonaut and a deadly extra-terrestrial life form.

It's all bullshit of course, but the film's website claims it all to be true and that's the only way these found footage films really work. They need to seem real. So whether or not you believe in this conspiracy may just gauge how much you will enjoy watching the film.
I thought the best aspect of APOLLO 18 was the atmosphere it creates. The footage is supposedly from the 70s and was meant to be filmed on the moon, so obviously it isn't going to be great quality. I thought it looked and sounded great, and is probably as close as you could get to reproducing actual lunar footage. And the cameras don't seem out of place at all like they do in some of these found footage movies, because if you're going to the moon you're obviously going to want it on film.
I was disappointed that it didn't feel as tense as I thought it would, and there are plenty of opportunities for frightening moments that could have been better utilized. Even still, you can feel the panic as the Astronauts come under attack, and there is a real sense of hopelessness when they discover that the DOD don't intend to bring them back to earth.
I know that there was a lot of viral marketing before this movie hit theatres, and I was expecting to see a terrifying horror masterpiece. It was far from terrifying and far from being a masterpiece but I still enjoyed it immensely. It felt like more could have been done, but I'd still recommend seeing it at least once.