Brian De Palma’s “Mission to Mars” was the primary of three high-profile, sci-fi occasion movies in regards to the purple planet within the early 2000s.
It’s simply the one which arrived with essentially the most fanfare.
Disney’s big-budgeted “Mission to Mars” got here with a wave of hype and the bragging
rights of showing months earlier than “Purple Planet” (additionally 2000) and John Carpenter’s
“Ghosts of Mars” (2001).
I’d argue that Carpenter’s sturdy responsible pleasure is the very best of the lot, although “Purple Planet” and even De Palma’s critically dismissed work are higher than most bear in mind.
Set within the yr 2020, it facilities on a cluster of astronauts who’re initially on a rescue
mission, when a workforce led by Don Cheadle is sucked up into an superior sandstorm.
Later, one other workforce that includes Gary Sinese, Jerry O’Connell, Connie Nielsen and Tim
Robbins examine the extremely atypical exercise occurring on the purple planet.
You could have seen I solely listed the actors and never the names of their characters. That is on function.
Just a few of the performances (specifically that of Sinese and Cheadle) are good, however you gained’t care in regards to the people.
De Palma, coming off the mega-blockbuster of the primary “Mission: Unattainable” (1996) and
the smaller scale, rousing and flawed “Snake Eyes” (1998), was on a uncommon hit streak, however
hardly anybody’s thought for the director of a lavish sci-fi epic.
The outcome was a blended bag and a bumpy experience, however I’ve a delicate spot for it. The higher than anticipated however nonetheless underwhelming “Purple Planet” (2000) and John Carpenter’s campy, clunky however nonetheless enormously entertaining “Ghosts of Mars” (2001) have barely higher reputations than De Palma’s movie.
The latter opened huge then dropped tougher than a comet.
Right now, De Palma’s movie has fallen out of favor much more so than throughout its preliminary launch. It’s usually an afterthought when one displays on his physique of labor. Sure, “Mission to Mars” is lower than considered one of his classics, nevertheless it’s not “Clever Guys” (1986) or “The Black Dahlia” (2006), both.
The worst elements of “Mission to Mars” are overly paying homage to different, higher sci-fi movies. The very best scenes show why De Palma is a grasp filmmaker.
Brian De Palma’s Mission to Mars was launched 24 years in the past right this moment.
“When the primary manned mission to Mars meets with a catastrophic catastrophe after reporting an unidentified construction, a rescue mission is launched to analyze the tragedy and produce again any survivors.” pic.twitter.com/79bsjoDJE1
— The Spaceshipper
(@TheSpaceshipper) March 10, 2024
It opens with a BBQ occasion, filmed in a single take, like a yard model of the justly celebrated opening of De Palma’s in any other case atrocious “The Bonfire of the Vanities” (1990). After the spectacular begin, De Palma tops it with a zero-gravity dance sequence, set to Van Halen’s “Dance the Evening Away.”
It’s clearly supposed as a tribute to a well-known scene in “2001: A House Odyssey” (1968). To offer De Palma an enormous and deserved praise – right here is among the few instances the place somebody ever tried to match Kubrick and nailed it, even when just for a couple of minutes.
A light spoiler for this one paragraph: As soon as we lastly get to the extraterrestrial (the reveal is just like how Dorothy first meets the Wizard of Oz), the Martian resembles a cross between a harp and a disco ball.
Regardless of a reasonably standard story, it will get loopy throughout the first and particularly the third act. The ending is ludicrous, however I completely beloved it.
Most of “Mission to Mars” is visually breathtaking, with glorious sound design (be aware the
ability of the aforementioned sand funnel assault) and FX which are all the time dazzling.
On the draw back, it wanted a tighter edit, much more of Cheadle and far much less pre-
mission chatter. It jogged my memory of Barry Levinson’s “Sphere” (1998), one other lavish, all-
star, equally spectacular, completely bananas and wonky flop that’s higher than its repute.
“Mission to Mars” is the form of film that, a long time earlier, would have starred Leslie Nielsen and Richard Denning and sported cardboard units.
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I discovered “Mission to Mars” underwhelming the primary time I noticed it and nonetheless acknowledge the
flaws, notably within the overly drawn-out second act. Nonetheless, the director’s potential
to stage fantastic set items, give every second the area to unfold in actual time through
one-take photographs and finally take the goofy however audacious premise so far as it could possibly go is an asset.
There may be an unabashed optimism right here, because the screenplay celebrates the wonders of
human potential and “the three% distinction between man and ape DNA.” There’s even a line
that sounds prefer it might have been uttered by Jeff Goldblum in “Jurassic Park” (1993):
“Life reaches out for all times.”
That is such an upbeat view of the chances discovered within the universe. There’s even a “Treasure Island” reference.
A side that’s not often talked about is that, like the next “Nation Bears” (2002)
and “Pirates of the Caribbean: “The Curse of the Black Pearl” (2003), that is primarily based on a
Disney park experience: Rocket to the Moon, later retitled Flight to the Moon, then retitled
Mission to Mars in 1975.
Had De Palma’s movie been an enormous hit, we’d in all probability be taking a look at as many sequels as there are Captain Jack Sparrow flicks.
Regardless of the PG ranking, there’s a second right here that continues to traumatize me: we watch an astronaut get caught in a vortex, screaming as he spins till he rips aside. Ah, De Palma.
The largest misstep right here will sound like nitpicking however its virtually a complete dealbreaker for me: Ennio Morricone’s rating appears like a placeholder, a softer, inconsistent variation on his work for “The Mission” (1986).
In the course of the movie’s worst scene, it appears like Morricone is enjoying a church organ. Morricone has authored and carried out a few of cinema’s best soundtracks, however that is on the reverse finish of that spectrum.
At instances, the movie matches De Palma’s makes an attempt to offer the sci-fi style a jolt, which makes it value seeing not less than as soon as.
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