I actually liked this.

I've read pretty much an equal number of favorable and unfavorable reviews. I have a theory about this -- I think the unfavorable reviews come from the people who followed the hype and were waiting expectantly for the premiere and had their expectations set really high. I, on the other hand, knew nothing about it until the night of the premiere...and I was actually pissed off that they were showing a reinactment instead of the original CBS news coverage, which was what I was expecting.

But when someone told me the movie was "not bad," I decided to watch it. It far surpassed my expectations. I thoroughly enjoyed it and only wished it was an hour longer.

This movie reminds me a great deal of the 1979 TV movie S.O.S. Titanic, a much-hyped, expensive, three-hour docudrama about the sinking of the Titanic. To this day its merits are debated; for, like Moonshot, it's loaded with visual inaccuracies and lack of technical detail. The visual errors are so numerous that I can't blame those who overlook its excellent writing and fine performances.

Those were the things I noticed about Moonshot. I had expected some lame, poorly acted reinactment on some fakey cardboard LM set, playing up all the deadly danger and the UFO and what-not. Instead, I got a lavish, well-written, well-acted, accurate movie that actually delivered more material than the Apollo 11 episode of From the Earth to the Moon. True, they didn't cover Armstrong bailing out of the LLTV, or the simulation a few days before the flight when they actually got the 1201 program alarm, but the way I see it, that's okay -- you can only cover so much in a 93-minute movie (hence, once again, my wish that it was an hour longer). It's been pointed out to me how unlikely it is that Janet Armstrong would have had a copy of the presidential speech in the event of the crew's death, since that was not seen outside the White House until it was disclosed in 1999. Well, okay, the one big historical error. Apollo 13 had errors at least as big.

I thought Daniel Lapaine was just plain magnificent as Neil Armstrong. And I also liked James Marsters as Buzz Aldrin, and I say that having met Buzz several times.

But the main thing is the script. I really liked the script. I felt it was accurate, insightful, respectful, and displayed not only a knowledge of the events but an understanding of them.

I also felt their simulated lunar surface was very convincing -- when Neil and Buzz are setting up the flag, I honestly thought at first that I was looking at authentic 16mm footage from Apollo 14. But I reserve too much commentary on the quality of the special effects, since I was watching a poor-quality video with ads and graphics crawling all over the screen throughout.

But there you have it. I've heard the criticisms and don't entirely disagree with them, but I really liked the movie and I look forward to getting it on DVD.