Review of The Last Days on Mars (2013) by Panayiotis P — 30 Mar 2014

This Irish, British and US co-production presented as science fiction thriller was directed by Ruairí Robinson with a screenplay by Clive Dawson, based on the short story "The Animators" by Sydney J. Bounds. Filming mainly took place in Jordan. Its small cast stars Liev Schreiber, Elias Koteas, Romola Garai, Goran Kostic, Johnny Harris, Tom Cullen, Yusra Warsama and Olivia Williams. There were no outstanding performances but all of them where pretty solid!

The story of a research crew of eight inhabiting the Tantalus Base outpost on Mars was interesting but not developed in details. We witnessed the events in the last 19 hours of the six month mission which was to finish with a rendezvous with the lander Aurora, which will return them to their main orbiting craft. Nothing special was happening until the scientist Marko Petrovic (Goran Kosti?) found some samples that may point to life on the planet. Crewmate Richard Harrington (Tom Cullen) drives Petrovic, in a solar powered rover, to the spot where he had found the sample... and the tragedy strikes!

The movie was engaging enough to create continuity of the story without creating a major drama! There are moments at the start of Ruairi Robinson's feature-length directorial debut that seemed promising... especially a spectacular footage of dust storms and an eerie strings-heavy soundtrack that creates an effective atmosphere of doom. "The Last Days on Mars" was never going to be "Gravity," but it looked like it could aspire to be something closer to the highly enjoyable found footage film "Europa Report." However, the final result was a zombie type action movie which change the whole atmosphere!