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Hey, it's time for another movie about Mars. You know, the fourth planet from the Sun. The planet that is red and slightly smaller than Earth that lots of people hope to colonize someday. Well in Mission to Mars that is directed by Brian De Palma, a group of NASA astronauts are sent to Mars to basically start this colonization process. They arrive and start making things work while surveying the land. Then one-day they are out screwing around with some radar and everyone but Luc (Don Cheadle, Out of Sight) gets killed by a tornado of sorts. Now Luc is stranded on Mars all by himself, so NASA sends out a second group to rescue him. This second group is led by Jim McConnell (Gary Sinise, The Green Mile) and includes Phil Ohlmyer (Jerry O'Connell) Terri Blake (Connie Nielsen, Rushmore) and husband Woody Blake (Tim Robbins, The Shawshank Redemption). Of course the group has many obstacles to face just getting to Mars first, and then once they arrive on Mars they face the challenge of getting back to Earth. But as scientists they first must find out what killed their friends. My expectations were a bit high going in. I was hoping for something a little more action packed like Total Recall, but mixed with the impact of 2001: A Space Odyssey. But no, I got some cool special effects and a movie that didn't seem to know what it was trying to accomplish. I guess I was expecting something new in the Mars arena of thought. Let's see, most movies involving Mars have aliens being former inhabitants, this movie just ands a little twist to that hypothesis, which I won't mention so as to leave a little suspense in the movie. In the end I feel the writers, Lowell Cannon and Jim Thomas, did not make the story compelling or suspenseful enough to keep the audience intrigued with the plot. Plus the actors seemed to be just putting in the minimum so they could pick up their paychecks at the end of the day. So for the About-Movies.com rating I can only give Mission to Mars four couches, and that's only because of the good special effects. Y'all come back now ya hear.
Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:49:38 AM |
