Mission to Mars
Mission to Mars is one of those movies I cried over. The plot was
one
that could have been one of the best science fiction films ever made.
But it
didn't work out that way.
The movie starts off simple enough. The final days before the
launch and
the astronauts throw a party to say goodbye. But after that, the movie
has
few good moments. We learn that Gary Sinise is the leading expert on
Mars
exploration and was supposed to be the first man to walk on Mars. But a
sick
wife, who against all NASA protocols was going to accompany him,
prevented
his dream from becoming reality.
So who is going instead? Tim Robbins and his wife.
At this point in the film, the viewer still has hope that the movie
can
be salvaged. After all, they haven't even gotten to the red planet yet.
But
another bump in the road plummets the movie even farther down hill. No
scenes
of the take off. Not even of the countdown. What should have been one
of the
most poignant scenes in the movie, the first steps on Mars, was left
out
completely. No landing. No flag raising. Nothing. Instead, we pick up
13
months into the mission, with the astronauts all dug in, having erected
their
habitat and set out on a mission. In fact, the first scene on the
planet is
that of Don Cheadle chipping away at a big rock. Real poignant.
After using radar to test out a mysterious mound thought to contain
ice
(because if it looks like ice, it must be ice), the crew is attacked by
a
giant twister. One of the few scenes I could enjoy was when one of the
astronauts is sucked inside the tornado and under the intense G's is
torn
apart. The only survivor is Cheadle who send out a distress signal.
Tim Robbins and his crew, who were supposed to be the secondary
team, are
sent out to rescue Cheadle before he dies. We've got to get there
before it's
too late," exclaims Tim Robbins. There's a big rush to get there before
he
dies, so they scrounge together a mission plan and depart.
Flash forward a year. The big rush to get there in under a year.
Surely
he must be dead. But before we get to that atrocity, there is another
that
occurs. There is what could have been a great shot from the interior of
the
space ship (which realistically rotates a-la 2001:A Space Odyssey), but
it is
horribly directed and leads only to the shouting of obscenities by the
other
DFFQI members. Can't get any worse, right? Right? Wrong. There's a
conversation between Tim Robbins and his wife about how they never
dance
anymore, which leads to an aweful scene of the two of them ballroom
dancing
in zero gravity (which leads to a scientific question as to why only a
portion of the ship is rotating). Another decrepid scene involves Gary
Sinise
viewing old videos of his dead wife.
Cut past the part where the craft is destroyed, Tim Robbins dies (a
perfect reason why husband wife teams don't work, as his wife tries to
save
his life, risking her own and the crews), and they ride a supply ship
down to
the planet (which made me laugh, seeing as how a supply ship wouldn't
survive
the entry burn). They do some searching and find what's left of the
habitat.
They enter and find no one. Here's where the best scene in the movie
is. Don
Cheadle emerges from the shadow, pick axe in hand, (long beard and
dreadlocks
which reminded me of a Rastafarian bum from New York city), and attacks
Gary
Sinse shouting "NO, you're not real!"
The rescue crew sees how Cheadle survived for over a year. He lived
in
the greenhouse. There were enough plants to provide food and oxygen for
a
year. Nuff said.
After that, it is revealed that the face (which was unearthed by
the
tornadoe) is transmitting some type of message, which includes an
almost
complete human DNA chain.
Well, to sum it all up, the plot had potential, but Brian DePalma
tried
too hard to make his film, a Kubric-esque epic. Don Cheadle kept me
from
walking out. And it's not often a black guy survives a science fiction
film.
---
Stephen Pause
3.26.2000
Dairy Farmers For Quebec's Independence