Mission to Mars Review
by James Sanford (jamessanford AT earthlink DOT net)March 10th, 2000
Many science-fiction epics save their best effects for the finale, forcing us to wait 90 minutes for something spectacular to happen. "Mission to Mars," on the other hand, gives us the best it has to offer in its first 30 minutes. That's happy news for people who tend to doze off halfway through a movie, but not for those who like a last-minute jolt on their way out of the theater.
What the special effects crew has come up with is truly a marvel: a Martian whirlwind that churns like a tornado, slithers like a snake and growls like a chorus of angry bears. Anything or anyone that gets in its way is sucked in and torn to pieces. It's quite a sight. Unfortunately, in terms of imagination, it's also the high point of the film. The audience spends the next hour eagerly anticipating the appearance of something even more awesome, more frightening.
You might as well be waiting for Godot.
If it can't deliver much in the way of mind-blowing surprises, "Mars" deserves some credit for at least trying to create a bit of human drama as married astronauts Woody (Tim Robbins) and Terry (Connie Nielsen) lead a rescue team to the red planet after an expedition is nearly wiped out by that mysterious twister. Along for the ride are jokester Phil (Jerry O'Connell) and the subdued, troubled Jim (Gary Sinise), who is still trying to cope with the loss of his wife, also an astronaut.
Director Brian DePalma squeezes a considerable amount of suspense out of the problem-plagued journey to Mars -- some of the trials the crew face may remind you of "Apollo 13" -- while incorporating a lot of the dizzying camerawork he's famous for. There's a real shocker of a moment involving Phil and a nicely executed sequence in which one of the quartet makes a slip-up and ends up adrift in space. The dialogue is often overwrought ("What are you doing?!" "I'll tell you what I'm not doing -- watching you die!"), but that's hardly uncommon in these kinds of adventures and it doesn't diminish the tension. The screenplay by Jim Thomas, John Thomas and Graham Yost has used up all its best ideas, however, by the time the third act begins. After a lengthy and portentous build-up, what the rescuers discover on Mars seems truly anti-climactic, although it should put a smile on the faces of the Weekly World News staff who've long speculated about that odd "face" on the Martian surface.
The big revelation about the origins of life seems to have been pulled directly from those pop-science "Chariots of the Gods" books that were all the rage in the 1970s and, without giving too much away, let's just say you'll certainly sense the hand of Disney in the last reel. "Mars" is further undercut by a organ and string-saturated musical score by Ennio Morricone that might have been appropriate for a Barbra Streisand vehicle but sounds woefully out of place here. Instead of lifting us up, it flattens us nearly every step of the way, particularly in the last few minutes.
Aside from "Obsession" and "The Untouchables," DePalma has usually been a director more intrigued by sensationalism than by sentiment and that comes through clearly in "Mars." It's evident he's more excited and inspired by the danger of the trip than by the destination itself. In "Mission to Mars," getting there isn't half the fun, it's almost all the fun. James Sanford
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
