Review of Mission to Mars (2000) by Sean C — 04 Jul 2009

I must go against the grain in this at bat. This movie is one that I hold near and dear for the simple reason that, while on a lonely post as a federal guard, I watched this movie several times and began to see the high points outweigh the lows. It was the only movie that was available to me for several days on guard, and I simply had to have something to break the tension and mental stress of the work at hand.

For starters, the most interesting part of the movie to me is the initial trip...Don Cheadle provided a great character who was both sarcastic and obviously unnerved by his mission. Given he's really the only one you get to know from the first mission, the rest of the cast in that piece were just fodder, and warranted no mention really.

Then you get to Tim Robbins crew...and I call it this because Gary Sinise was simply unwatchable in this film, his character was just drull and unimaginative, and I blame him primarily because the story behind Jim was probably the most in depth of the entire movie, yet he just makes himself uninteresting and boring. The trip to mars marred by meteor showers, power failures, and the mother of all technical screw ups which causes the big explosion just proves to be a fun and exciting ride. After the climatic death of Woody, you begin to wonder what good will come for this makeshift team or what they'll find when they land on the red planet.

The story to me stays pretty strong for a Sci-Fi film up until they get inside the giant face...at which point the movie just jumps off the proverbial ledge and never looks back at itself before its cinematic suicide. What a great life it was leading up until this point, and what a tragic mistake De Palma made to conclude his work. I didnt even mind the explanation of life on Earth, but when the goofy alien walks out and holds hands with a starry eyed Gary Sinise and invites him to explore the galaxy with them, I couldnt wait for the whole deal to just end...

I think you get the point of my review...so id like to touch on something in conclusion...could I be the only person on this planet that would like to see the return trip home, and what exactly happened when they returned to Earth with all the new info...maybe even a return trip to mars to explore the ruins of the face...hell, id be happy with a straight to DVD release with a whole new cast, I just want to see the story. Call me strange but that is my wish from this film...that and make sure that ship Jim was on had a close encounter with a jagged, nightmarish asteroid on its way to the new alien planet.