Much as in 1998 when two movies about killer asteroids
about to hit the Earth opened within a few months of each other, this year
features two movies about the first manned mission to Mars. The
first of these, Mission to Mars opened this week. The second, The
Red Planet, comes out this summer. The two Asteroid movies, Armageddon
and Deep Impact were very
different. Armageddon went
for action over realism and Deep
Impact did the opposite. In the end, both turned out to be entertaining
films. The jury is still out on what The
Red Planet will be like but Mission to Mars has neither action nor
realism. This film follows two groups of astronauts. The first
group is sent on the first manned mission to Mars. The second group is
sent on a rescue mission when disaster strikes. Mission to Mars meanders
along at a very slow pace throughout and may seem longer than its 2 hour
running time. Having set my expectations for this movie at an appropriately
low level before seeing it, I was able to enjoy most of it but this is
not a good film. The presence of Gary Sinise and Tim Robbins in the
cast help raise the level of the movie above the material but by the end
Mission to Mars had become laughable. There is very little action aside
from one special effects storm on Mars that results in death for most of
the first astronaut crew. Here the crew inexplicably stand and watch
the storm approach rather than fleeing to safety. In another scene
where the spaceship hull is punctured, the only tension is created by having
Gary Sinise inexplicably not wear his space helmet. It was like he
had never seen 2001: A Space
Odyssey. The lack of realism is seen most strongly in a scene
where the crew transfers from one spacecraft to another defying orbital
mechanics. OK, so I'm an astronomer. I notice these things. A more
noticeable error to the layman is how much air there seems to be on Mars
which in reality has about 1% of that seen on Earth. For a more realistic
view of the Martian atmosphere, see Wolff
et al. 1999. It is hard to recommend anything about this film except
the cast which is quite good. In addition to Sinise and Robbins,
Jerry O'Connell of Slider's
fame provides some comic relief as if this film needed it, and Don
Cheadle is good as the commander of the first Mars mission. The special
effects are a bit low rent. And they spend more screen time at the the
astronauts going away party than they do in space. Much of the look
and feel of the spaceships and also of the ending of the film is stolen
straight from 2001: A
Space Odyssey. Stay home and watch it instead.