The First Men in the Moon
The First Men in the Moon
| 19 October 2010 (USA)
The First Men in the Moon Trailers

Mark Gatiss's adaptation of HG Wells's science fiction classic. July 1969, and as the world waits with bated breath for the Apollo astronauts to land on the Moon, a young boy meets 90-year-old Julius Bedford. He's a man with an extraordinary story of how, way back in 1909, he got to the Moon first, and, together with the eccentric Professor Cavor, discovered a terrifying secret deep beneath its seemingly-barren surface.

Reviews
ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.
ClassyWas Excellent, smart action film.
Micransix Crappy film
Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.
phoenixinvictus If you're expecting an action-packed movie of aliens vs. humans like the Alien franchise or the Predator franchise then forget about watching this. This is a family-friendly movie to watch with the family during a lazy afternoon. It was relatively loyal to the novel written by H. G. Wells. It discusses the dangers of imperialism and greed of the era and the pursuit of knowledge at any cost.You have to give credit to Mark Gatiss who despite being in an obviously low-budget movie is able to entertain the viewer. I'm not too familiar with Rory Kinnear's work except that he played a great villain in iBoy and I like his work on the Bond franchise, but he played a great role in this movie too.I have seen Sci-fi movies that have made me nauseous to watch them. However, this movie I believe paid a genuine homage to the 1950-60's science fiction movies. The one thing that I didn't like was the alien's appearance, which was a bit weak and could have used a bit more work.
Maniago I had already read the original book by H.G. Wells, so when I found this movie for sale at a local store I bought it.One thing I particularly liked about the movie is the fact it's faithful to the original story, only leaving out a few details (for example, in the book Cavor and Bedford get lost and start hallucinating after eating some of the plants on the moon before being captured) and not adding too much new material (just enough to explain why the moon has no atmosphere anymore). That seems to be a rarity for adaptations of H.G. Wells-stories, because the most well known adaptations of his books are either modernized versions of the story (War of the Worlds) or add a lot of new plot elements (The Time Machine).The special effects are decent enough. It is a television movie after all, so you can expect it won't have the same production values as a Hollywood blockbuster. One thing the movie could have done without however is the short dream sequence Bedford has when he just escaped from the moon, which is filmed in the style of the old silent movie "A Trip to the Moon".Overall, this is a movie that a fan of H.G. Wells' works should see at least once.
june17-875-666095 It's only been on for 15 minutes and I love it! Thankyou Mark Gatiss for finding this brilliant novel, and presumably the previous film version, and remaking it for today. Clever and funny and hopefully immensely sad ( haven't got to that bit yet.....)it tells of before we knew more than that the stars twinkled and other worlds existed, and chances were that aliens lived in darkest Africa. If you've ever loved Edwardian schoolboy stories, or looked for adventure in everyday happenings - or imagined yourself living in a time when there was no cynicism, Science was King, and literally ANYTHING was possible - then enjoy this. The acting is good too - it's like tome travel....
Neil Welch HG Wells' First Men In The Moon, previously visited in what is probably Ray Harryhausen's most lacklustre movie, gets a revised adaptation by, and starring, Mark Gatiss.The adaptation is fine - both faithful to the original but with a knowingly contemporary air to it. Gatiss and Rory Kinnear, as the two main actors, are both very good.The production is well staged, too, looking authentically Victorian. Only the lunar exteriors look somewhat stagebound (hardly surprising, perhaps), while the interiors are nicely convincing.The CGI Selenites look very similar to Harryhausen's stop motion models - they both follow Wells' description - and the animation is fine, although the integration into the background plates isn't always successful.But overall, this must be judged a successful and very welcome update.