With Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum as the two lead characters, you would think audiences would be in for a great action flick! Surprisingly, this is quite the opposite. The duo stars in this rom-com Fly Me to the Moon, a great double reference to Frank Sinatra’s song and a reference related to the main plot of this film.
The beginning of Fly Me to the Moon provided a lot of the exposition around the politics of the 1960s (narrated by Woody Harrelson’s presidential contact Moe Berkus), such as the inception of landing on the Moon by President John F. Kennedy, the change of U.S. leadership to Richard Nixon, and the growing issues around the Vietnam War. This was a great setup for how these nine years stunted NASA’s budget due to the lack of progress in getting to the Moon.
Tatum’s fictional NASA Director, Cole Davis, was in charge of the Moon landing mission for the past decade, hoping to achieve the President’s and the American goal before the 1970s. Moe recruits one of the best marketing specialists, Scarlett Johansson’s Kelly Jones, to fix NASA’s public image and stage a “back-up” fake Moon landing. However, Cole and his team of astronauts and engineers are trying to actually create Apollo 11 to successfully reach the Moon before the Soviet Union.
Fly Me to the Moon is a great historical fiction story that blended what NASA and the U.S. government showed to everyone around the world versus what conspiracy theorists thought about the Space Race and the Moon landing in 1969. I thought this narrative presented a third believable outcome of the Apollo 11 mission. Without giving too much away, this film showed how both the conspiracy and actual landing could both be the actual truth—however, how it played out in real life may not be as simple. The only random storyline that seemed to lead nowhere was why this cat was interrupting the whole space center.
“Fly Me to the Moon is a great historical fiction story that blended what NASA and the U.S. government showed to everyone around the world versus what conspiracy theorists thought about the Space Race and the Moon landing in 1969.”
Tatum and Johansson had great on-screen chemistry with each other as they flirted and fought against one another in Fly Me to the Moon. The romantic tension between the stars was built up fairly well. In terms of the casting and acting, I could not take Tatum seriously as a NASA director. Unfortunately, Chris Evans was originally slated for the role—which would have made a bit more sense. So, I can give Tatum some leniency for the miscast role here.
Johansson shone the brightest in Fly Me to the Moon—she was soaring to the Moon with her outstanding performance. Her character required her to use some fake accents, and she nailed it! Her ability to portray a suave, confident marketer/saleswoman was so good. Everything about her acting in this film took a lot of the stage presence from her co-stars. Even when she interacted with Ray Romano, it felt like she was always at the focal point of attention.
Additionally, Greg Berlanti was not the first director for Fly Me to the Moon—Jason Bateman was. The movie was first titled “Project Artemis” but was changed when Berlanti took over directing. For an Apple Studios production, this was great. I could tell where the $100 million budget went with the VFX/CGI of the shots of the Apollo 11 rocket and the gorgeous colours of the sky. The set production must have been a big budget, too, with the fake sets and the recreation of the Kennedy Space Center in 1969.
“Johansson shone the brightest in Fly Me to the Moon…”
With the score done by Daniel Pemberton (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse), I felt like the theme for this film was filled with a wide spread of orchestral sounds of wonder. What I mean by this is that it sounded like a combination of typical historical drama space movie scores—whether that is First Man, Gravity or The Martian. Pemberton has been known to have some notable movie scores in films like Molly’s Game, Ocean’s 8 and Enola Holmes. This one felt a little too familiar, only adding in a tinge of triangle to keep the mood upbeat and light.
Fly Me to the Moon had its strongest moments in its second half. It had a lot of build up to the building of the Apollo 11 rocket, brainstorming and working on the fake Moon landing, and then there got to a point near the end where it felt a bit like a heist movie. Again, Johansson killed her role as Kelly Jones. Her ability to sell anything looked real and accurate to marketing specialists of the times. Fly Me to the Moon was a thought-provoking film that took its time to get started and had some great, chuckle-worthy scenes.
