Arnold
CibbuanoMission to Mars
August 31st 2006 07:57
Mission to Mars (2000)
I used to love science fiction when I was a kiddo. I would've jumped up and down at seeing a film like this in the weeklies section. These days though, I'm a lot more aware of the falling level of quality in the genre. Science-fiction hasn't seen days as dark as this for quite some time.
I was kind of excited to see Brian De Palma's name attached to this film. He's a director who's impressed me greatly in the past ('Scarface', 'The Untouchables', ‘Carlito’s Way’ and yes – even ‘Dressed to Kill’) but I guess I should've been wary that his best films were made more than 10 years ago. 'Mission to Mars' is an odd film. It exists in two halves; a set-up that explores characters and establishes the situation that sits as the apex of the film, and the actual story itself - the situation on Mars. It's a little uneven as a result.
Firstly, it starts off by spending time establishing characters that are barely (if ever) seen again. It also wastes a lot of time developing characters that aren't worth developing (namely Gary Sinise... his character would have to be the most overdone, overseen and stock-standard cliche in science-fiction). Secondly, it purports to be some sort of hardcore science-fiction film, promising some big answers to mysterious and genuinely interesting questions. The answers it delivers are, unfortunately, lame and cliched. Despite what the director or writer may think, the concepts aren't anything new or exciting to anyone vaguely familiar with science-fiction. '2001' it aint.
But it's not all bad. The score has a real old-school science-fiction feel to it, and if you thought I couldn't use the term 'science-fiction' any more you'd be wrong, because there are some great genuine science-fiction moments reminiscent of science-fiction classics of the 60s/70s (eg. 'Silent Running' - the madman in the greenhouse, or 'Forbidden Planet' - aggressive enigmatic forces in an alien environment). And it's always great to see Don Cheadle, because he's a great character actor who deserves more screen-time than he usually gets. Jerry O'Connell also features, and thankfully plays less of a boofhead than usual.
Anyway, 'Mission to Mars' was on the whole a bit of a disappointment for me. Overall, the story was a bit lacking, which was a shame because there were more than a few nice touches by De Palma. The end sequence featuring Gary Sinise helped the film leave more of an impression on me than it really deserved. It’s by no means a bad film, just deeply flawed.
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