Oh so bad! (Mission To Mars (DVD))

Member Name: daseaford

Product:	Mission To Mars (DVD)
Date:	20/01/02 (28 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None.

Disadvantages: Absurd story.

I should have stopped watching this film after about five minutes, but it was after a long day at work and the children had chosen this from our pile of unwatched movies. So lazing in an armchair I settled down to watch this film.

It started with a group of astronauts and their families having a barbecue, the night before the first manned flight to the planet Mars. Haven’t we seen these barbecues enough, in almost every other astronaut film? The characters were introduced in about 30 seconds each - the commander, the brainy one, the coloured guy and the woman.

When the next shot was 13 months later after they had landed on Mars I realised that the budget for this film had not even been high enough to film a space launch. What did Mars look like? Well, it looked like a scene from an American western film (lots of desert and large rock formations), except filmed with a red colour filter over the lens.

Soon we realised why these characters had hardly been introduced to us, because they were destined to die. (All except one.) The film then follows the rescue mission and the events that follow their arrival. The rescue team consists of a husband and wife, a brainy one, and a guy who was rejected as an astronaut, but suddenly is fit and ready for a six month flight to Mars.

The story is absurd and the large leaps in time just make it farcical. The characters are just not believable as astronauts, but more like a group of friends going camping in Devon. The film is supposed to be set in the year 2020, but by today’s standards some of the technology is more like the 19th century. I assumed that the poor technical details were due to the age of the film, but I was dismayed when I found out that it had been made as recent as 2000.

The story line of the film is centred on the American belief that “we will always bring our boys home”. But, when this is supposed to be in the form of a 6 month trip either way, c
osting billions of dollars, it is not very believable. Is one man worth that much?

The whole film yells “budget” at you, as almost every shot seems to have been compromised in order to save cash. I know in my movie reviews I normally list the actors and their characters names, but there is little point for this film as they are so forgettable that it is not worth the effort.

This tape has been recorded over already (I think we found something on Challenge TV that was much more interesting) and I certainly will not be watching it again.

Although this film may seem very appealing to sci-fi fans I really would suggest that you give this film a miss. It is very disappointing and not worth the time to watch it.

Summary: