MISSION TO MARS
The date is not given at the film's opening, but one must assume it's
some time around the mid-21st century. The first manned mission to Mars
is about to lift off, and we learn through a badly written opening barbecue
scene that the commander is Luc Goddard (Cheadle). His two best friends,
Jim McConnell (Sinise) and Woody Blake (Robbins), will be monitoring the
mission from the World space station. Six months later, when the
ship arrives at its destination, the crew establishes its base camp and
a greenhouse designed to provide a miniature, self-sustaining atmosphere
in which they can work without artificial breathing apparatus. But the investigation
of a strange object near them leads to a catastrophic event: a giant Hoover
sucks up three crewmembers. Luc is left alone, and his friends back home
plan an immediate rescue (well, as immediate as you can get with six months
of traveling time).
On the way, several things go wrong, but despite damage to their ship
and the loss of more crewmembers, the guys finally arrive and find Luc looking
more like Bob Marley than an astronaut. And it is then that they discover
the incredible secret that he already knows, the secret that will change
all their lives, and in fact, the lives of everyone on our fair planet.
Brian DePalma's apparent lack of an inner ear lends itself perfectly
to space photography. The scenes in weightlessness are an elegant ballet,
reminiscent of 2001's similar scenes, which were indeed set to "The
Blue Danube." In many of his films, there are times when one has trouble
discerning which way is up; in zero-gravity it doesn't matter. Of course,
Stephen Burum's beautiful cinematography aided in bringing DePalma's spacey
vision to life, and the computer-generated special effects are impressive.
Where this film fails is on the human side. The principal actors do well enough given what they have to work with; Robbins is the only one who actually attempted to convey any sort of personality, but maybe DePalma thought that astronauts are just like that. The dialogue is often stilted and some really ridiculous plot elements imply that neither DePalma nor his four-man writing team are terribly familiar with the physics of space. I mean, a computer's voice slowing down because of a lack of oxygen? Come on. But flaws aside, it's clear that at least an attempt was made not to count on big explosions and beautiful scenery to sell the film. ***½