Science Fiction movies have been steadily produced by Hollywood every year since the success of the original Star Wars. It is kind of unusual for two movies about the first manned mission to Mars to  come out in the same year. The lame Mission to Mars is joined now by the only slightly better Red Planet.

     Red Planet takes place in the year 2057. Years earlier man has realized that Earth is becoming uninhabitable due to pollution. The solution is to transform Mars into a planet that can support human life. A series of unmanned rockets have been sent to Mars carrying algae that is intended to grow all over the planet and create a breathable atmosphere. The algae begins growing as planned but mysteriously the algae starts to die and oxygen levels start declining. The first manned mission is put together to investigate what went wrong. The crew is lead by Commander Kate Bower played by Carrie-Anne Moss who comes off as the toughest/sexiest woman in sci-fi since Sigourney Weaver in Alien. Val Kilmer plays Gallagher the techie guy on the crew who is demeaningly called the "Janitor". Tom Sizemore is miscast in the film as one of two biologist sent on the mission. Terence Stamp gives good but brief performance as Dr. Chantilis who is more concerned with finding signs of God's existence on Mars than the mission itself. The crew is rounded out by actors Benjamin Bratt and Simon Baker.  

Just as the spaceship makes it into orbit around the red planet it gets hit by a giant gamma ray storm. It is feared that the ship will lose orbit or fall apart (it's never really made clear in the film). The crew is forced to crash land on Mars in a landing capsule except for Bower who tried to keep control of the wounded ship and nurse it back to health. After a very exciting and original crash landing the stranded crew is faced with the challenge of getting off of Mars while coping with a limited air supply. At the same time, the crew has to deal with a robot they brought along named AMEE which has run amok. With all this going on they are still looking for an answer to what went wrong with the algae growing on mars. There is also a romance that is revealed in the second half of the film between Bowers and Gallagher.

    Red Planet is a better film then Mission to Mars but like it's predecessor has a lot of problems. The special effects are top notch and the depiction of the Martian landscape is ominous and at points breathtaking. The story is a throwback to sci-fi space exploration films of the 1950's which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I was caught up in the suspense as the crew overcomes one life threatening obstacle after another. The problem is the outcome of the story is weak as well as having a few holes in it. The script doesn't offer any interesting dialog which leads to only mediocre acting. I also had a problem with the editing. During action sequences the editing is so choppy it is hard to tell exactly what is going on. 

    Both Red Planet and Mission To Mars are attempts at creating a more realistic sci-fi film. A film that combine the realism and drama of Apollo 13 with the quest to find man's place in the universe as in 2001:A Space Odyssey. The makers of these films should have paid more attention to the stories and scripts. If they did, viewers might be left with more memorable films rather then ones that leave them feeling as empty as the Martian landscape.      

RATING

Reviewed by Eugene Accardo