So for the viewing audience when watching Disney's newest $90 million sci-fi flick, have we been searching on the wrong planet for the origin of life, as the stylized trailor suggests? Or better yet, have we been searching for the wrong movie for the promise of entertainment?  The answer lies within this review.

There is actually promise of a good film as the film starts off really well in developing the main charactors.  Its the year 2020 and the first manned mission to Mars is prepared.  Sinise(actually not playing a villain here) stars as Jim McConnell who has been preparing for the mission for 12 years with his wife, Maggie.  But at the last second, Maggie succumbs to a sickness which provokes Jim to stay back on Earth to take care of her.  Luke (Cheadle) his closest friend becomes his replacement for the mission.  Exchanging emotions and melodramatics between each other we finally see Luke and the rest of his crew on the picturesque Mars when a strange energy signal somewhere out on the planet forces the people to go out and discover what's up.  Bad idea, as there discovery leads them to a strange sound signal being emitted from a large mountain with a strange twister like formation being built up.  The crew is astounded by this but become Swiss cheese by the sandstorm, everyone except for Luke.  When the dust clears, a strange, bigger-than-life FACE is revealed on top of the mountain.  A rescue mission is prepared in effect for the rescue of Luke which includes Jim, a depressed widow now since his wife evedently died from her sickness, and also a few other fresh faces which also includes Tim Robbins as Woody Blake.  They will soon find out, that Mars is more than what is on the surface...

The tensest scenes in this film included simple problems that seem simple to us here on Earth but down-right impossible in the zero-gravity in space.  The film's strongest quality is how real and less sci-fi it seems as it moves along. A good example of this is the space station sequence where a small meterotite shower proves to be devesting in the airless void of space.  The meteorites puncture Jim's space shuttle and the movie proves just how complicated outer space really is, as the ship slowly (and suspensefully) depressurizes.  Another realistic attribute of the film, is how just how accurate the charactors act like real astronauts most of the time so they don't get sidetracked and do stupid things.

But the story has its problems and they are quite noticeable especially with all the 2001 and Contact references.  The monolith in Stanley Kubrick's film, has been replaced with the "face" in this one and Contact's sound waves make an appearence in this film as well.  In many ways it tries to mystify the audience with its 2001 elements but the film is sorely lacking in that department as it rationalizes its celestial ending which ruins the mystery we've been having fun with.  Also, in most movies there is a traditional climax or a part of the film where you know its going to end.  Not in this case.  There's simply no climax and the film ends in a heartbeat just when you think something interesting was going to happen.  Maybe the filmmakers ran out of ideas, because the big "THE END" I saw right before the credits was their sick idea of an ending.  Its like they have to tell us the movie is over, just before you expect something really good to happen.  Because not a lot of time was spent on the finale like the other parts in the film.  Trust me, the difference is noticeable.

And so is the $8 or so you'll be missing from your wallet after realizing how much you were let down in the finale.  There were many ingenious sequences in the film that actually left you hanging, but the rushed ending blew the whole steam out the flick.  And besides.  Indestrial Light & Magic's alien in the film was probably a leftover creature from Star Wars: Phantom Menace.  (The laughs in the theater were not imaginary when the alien starts crying like a human).  Give me a break folks.
One day NASA's going to send  a real manned mission to Mars.  They should reconsider and try creating one for Hollywood.  Lets see if any intelligent life is found between the filmmakers of this film.

RATING: ***