| Red Planet |
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| Rating: Fair Distributor: Warner Bros. MPAA Rating: PG-13 Genre: Sci-Fi Running Length: 1 hour, 47 minutes Release Date: November 10th, 2000 (wide) Director: Antony Hoffman Cast: Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tom Sizemore, Benjamin Bratt, Terence Stamp, and Simon Baker. |
| pictures above from www.sciflicks.com/red_planet/ |
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| Plot: A group of scientists is sent to discover what went wrong with the algae scientists had planted, and why the oxygen level that algae had created has dropped. They find in store for them quite a few obstacles, including a ship accident in space, a murderous robot, treachery among themselves, and strange life they find on Mars. |
| Critique: Red Planet is a well directed film, but the writing is weak. Nothing special ever really happens on Mars, and the life form they find is not exotic, but only cliche ridden. Why not have a wonderful, interesting life form that we are told about in great detail? Instead we are given you guessed it- a murderous life form. Plus the whole film lacks diversity and adventure. There is no real interesting conflicts, and the dialogue is stale. The characters are weak and not developed. Although I will give credit to the strong cast for working hard to make their characters sound interesting. Antony Hoffman's direction is strong because of the mood he creates. It is a fantastic, dry, dusty, cold mood. It is maintained steadily until the silly climax where the atmosphere dissipates slightly. It is not his fault that there is no fun adventure, he didn't write it. If you make a film about going to Mars there are so many exciting things that could be done. However, in this film none of them were tapped. Graeme Revell who created a fantastic soundtrack to Pitch Black, strikes gold again here. It helps the director in the mood he is creating. Red Planet's strong aspects make the films failure in writing all the more disappointing. I would like it very much if Antony Hoffman were matched with a better script. Val Kilmer, who has also yet to find a film to match his talent with the possible exception of The Island of Dr. Moreau, creates good chemistry with Tom Sizemore and Carrie-Anne Moss. Moss and Sizemore are also very talented, and it's nice to see Moss in a plethora of films this year. Terence Stamp who is the stand out actor here does not get the screen time he deserves. It's a shame that it is hard to find screen writers these days who want to work hard on a sci-fi script. A lot of other people have their hearts in making these films work. Director Hoffman showed us he has promise, and the terrific cast does all they can to keep the film afloat. In the end though there is no real adventure, and nothing exciting happens. review by supernothingman |