Mission to Mars
Here Is What You Need To Know:
There are a group of films out there that fall into a sort of brief niche in history. America having won the Cold War, SEEMED to have no serious external threats, the dot com revolution was taking off and with it a strong economy and the future seemed a bit more open and promising than normal. With the Cold War over space missions of a realistic and semi-realistic nature popped up, as did many movies where “We” took on nature both on land and in space. Deep Impact, Armageddon, Apollo 13 as well as Mission to Mars to some extent fall into this framework.
Okay, not to give it all away, but Mission to Mars may not end too realistically, but much of the early part of the film has some basis in reality. Its mankind's first mission to Mars, as the title sort of gives away, and once on the red planet, big surprise, things don't go so well as odd occurrences, many of which are visually interesting, take place and people end up dead. Mission to Mars is one of those films that relies heavily on its ending to entertain. That ending is perhaps just too abrupt of a turn and may leave many feeling cold.
I love films about space, in particular ones that encourage us to travel to our nearby neighbors and I am quite disappointed when they simply go through the motions and fail to spark the audiences' imagination for what is possible. Mission to Mars is a big-budget disappointment in that it doesn't address how cool life on Mars could be, or how we could make it happen. Instead, much like its inferior cousin Red Planet, Mission to Mars is just an excuse for displaying some visual effects magic and some carnage.
What Was Cool:
-Sandstorms
-Some of the visuals are striking but overall there is a great deal of inconsistencies.
What Was Stupid:
-The script is weak. The ending is interesting enough but it doesn't really save the film. What Mission to Mars needed to be was more of an exploration of life on Mars and not just Mars as a set. Sure you need action and excitement, but there are many ways to infuse those elements into the story.
-When will the overrated Brian DePalma serve up another good film?
Story C+ (Mission to Mars has some admirable moments and addresses some fancy-smancy ideas at the end, but its too little, too late.)
Use of Science B
Acting B
Visuals-VFX and SFX B
Visuals-Set Design/Props B
Wardrobe/Costumes A-
Style/Sex Appeal C
Enjoyability Grade C
Home Theater/HD Factor B
Gut Check (Level of Studio Executive Guts) C
Overall Innovation C
Overall Grade C (Almost totally forgettable, sadly.)
A Little Fact About Cherie:
I believe space travel is the only way to avoid the extinction of the collective human body and maybe even the human spirit. I also like tequila
|
