Sci-fi by numbers (Red Planet (DVD))

Member Name: buchanan17

Product:	Red Planet (DVD)
Date:	05/05/01 (57 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Carrie Ann Moss

Disadvantages: Val Kilmer, No suspense, Dumbed down to the extreme

This is rather a dismal film. There is no depth, no suspense, and no humour.

The film starts badly. I can't remember the last time I heard a voice over over the titles setting the scene. its as if the makers couldn't be bothered filming a few scenes that would set the scene. its plain stuff- earth is in trouble through over use of resources and needs to colonise Mars. Rockets with oxygen producing algae have been sent, but the algae has stopped growing. Cue mission to find out why. Jeez - have filmgoers lost the art to pick that up, rather than be told it.

So then, we have the mjourney with some pathetic attempts to get some depth to the characters. So one astronat is now a philosopher? Wow! As if that gives some meaning to the film!

And, some equally clumsy attempt to get some frission between the captain (Carrie Ann Moss) and one of her subordinates (Val Kilmer). he has to catch her coming naked out of a shower. Bang! So
the viewer is too thick to pick up anything remotely subtle?

They get to Mars. And somehow, out of nowhere, a solar flare hits them. Now mars is twice as far from the sun as earth, and I cannot recall a manned or unmanned mission yet being hit by a solar flare, or at least one so disastrous as this which has all but Moss abandoning ship to land on Mars. Or perhaps I wasn't supposed to think?

They land on Mars and find emergency supplies originally sent destroyed. So obviously they are going to run out of oxygen. Cue clucthing at helmets, and the ripping off of them. Suspense? No. Its bleeding obvious that the air is now going to be breathable or the film is ended a third of the way through! Sorry! Thinking again...

Well, not to give too much more away, because i can;t stand much more thinking about this...apart from the robot that they take with them that is a cross between a robotic dog that you can buy everywhere these days and the terminator that goes
all malevolent. predictable!? Why? becuase we "see" through its eyes as it is being unveiled on the ship as it swicthes into attack mode - just like terminator and robocop.

So why is the air breathable? Well, watch and find out for yourselves. If you really really want to... Ok, there are some reasonable special effects, and Moss is lovely though without the tight black outfits from Matrix. Kilmer may be similarly attractive to the opposite sex, but he cannot act to save anything...

But what I really object to is the total dumbing odwn of this movie. Everything is so expected, predictable, and telegraphed miles off. Looking at the average rating I don't think I am at all alone in this. It barely, barely struggles to a second star...

Summary: