The First Men in the Moon (2010 film) narrative runs out of steam," but wrote that "it's worth staying on," and summed up the film as an "engaging slice of time travel." "The Independent"'s reviewer Tom Sutcliffe wrote, "Is there anything deader than science fiction that has been overtaken by science fact? I suppose there might be objections to this rule, but I'm not sure that H. G. Wells's "The First Men in the Moon" is one of them, despite the affectionate treatment it was given." While noting the film's "neat framing device" of being set on the same day of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Sutcliffe described
First on the Moon 1930s space program appears to have dissolved immediately after, with no reason given (but presumably as a part of Stalin's purges). It is implied that Kharlamov returned to Earth, but with no fanfare and apparently no assistance from the space program. A number of men are shown as suspected of being Kharlamov—the NKVD seems to be conducting a criminal investigation of the program and it is implied that those involved, including Kharlamov himself, are in hiding. It seems that the capsule returned to Earth and landed in Chile, and that Kharlamov journeyed to the Soviet Far East by way of