Having read "First Man", the Armstrong biography, I was looking forward to the movie immensely. I personally found it bizarre that it started with Karen already gravely ill. There was no emotional attachment at all. There was no mention of Armstrong's fascination with flight, no mention of joining the navy in order to attend Purdue, leading to his near-fatal Korean war flight experience with the missing wingtip.
If I was directing I would have started with his childhood fascination with flight, his scrimping and saving to pay for flying lessons, the fact that he obtained his pilot's licence before his car licence and then I would have built an emotional attachment with Janet and Karen.
During the lunar descent, when the very dramatic 1202 and 1201 programme alarms occurred, I would have built the dramatic tension instead of drowning out all the drama with loud music. I would have built the drama with the 30 seconds of fuel remaining and showed the relief at Mission Control when the Eagle touched down safely.
I would have showed the discussions concerning crew positions in the lunar module, resulting in Commander Armstrong exiting prior to Buzz and thereby becoming the first to put his boots on the lunar surface. I would have showed the aftermath of reaching his childhood dream, where he was required (along with Buzz and Mike) to tour the world ceaselessly, spotlighted in the limelight and hating every minute of it.
It's a good thing I'm not a director because that's probably what everyone expected, whereas this film is a very different treatment. Some great visual effects and good acting and I liked the way Apollo 1 was handled - it was very respectful. However, I felt the film missed a lot of what made Neil tick - it was hard to engage.
Review of First Man
