Harry here, with this additional peek at MISSION TO MARS, this first little quick rundown came from Omega Prime, a real hero, if you ask me. It's brief but to the point. I also spoke with someone that was raving about the screening about 4 seconds ago and man... It sounds like this screening did AMAZING. But wait... I thought no good movies come in March... oh... except ummm when did MATRIX hit screens? :)
Brian DePalma has crafted a thoroughly entertaining, emotionally stimulating, and thought provoking genre masterpiece. The temporary soundtrack intimates that the final score will be a memorable one. The Cinematography is beautiful; lit very well (great depth of field). Editing is fast-paced. Performances all around are excellent. The screenplay is smart, fun, and unique. Elements are implemented throghout to accomodate a disired rating and running time and win favor with critics and audiences alike. A must see!
Hey folks... Harry here. I just have to tell you that while John Carter below LOVED (like in a really big way) MISSION TO MARS, I highly suggest that you NOT read this review. He throws spoilers about like you wouldn't believe. In fact I caught at least 3 that I didn't want to know... and got rid of two that I just didn't want shown at ALL! Besides that though, I'll tell you that he loved this movie on a MATRIX level, his words...not mine. He said there are similarities with 2001 but that the film is also quite different. Apparently the fx are stunning in a very huge way. The characters and actors also apparently do a very good job. Personally, I'm excited about this project. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Dear Harry,
Finally! Finally I get to report to you on something for the site. I just came from a test preview screening of the movie ³Misssion to Mars. The film was directed by Brian DePalma, and stars Tim Robbins, Gary Sinese, Don Cheadle (from ³Devil in a Blue Dress.²) and Connie Neilson (who played the devil¹s daughter in ³Devil¹s Advocate.²) Remember the naked redhead? Anyway, the film is awesome! Certainly the best film since The Matrix. I think almost every shot had a special affect of some kind. Fantastic stuff!
The film basically is about NASA¹s second mission to mars to rescue the sole surviving member of another mission, the other astronauts having died mysteriously. All of the actors I mentioned above play the crew, except for Cheadle who is the guy stranded on Mars for a year, looking very much like Bob Marley by the time help arrives. On the way to Mars the shit hits the fan when a meteor storm goes by and a couple of meteors smash through the ship. The crew has to fix the ship and there is a cool scene where they have to get around the ship weightless, with the air leaking out of the ship, Sinese almost bites it but saves the day - get this - by squirting out soda from a spaceman sode can/bag. The soda floats weightless in the air and is then, like the air, sucked out through the hole the meteor made. As it hits space, the soda freezes, temporarily filling the hold, as well as showing the astronauts where it is. But they missed a hole and when they get close to Mars they launch their rockets and blow their ass off. They have to bail out and get to some supply ship which happens to be nearby in orbit and they do just that, but not before Tim Robbins gets them there, putting his own life in peril. When the rest of the crew wants to rescue Tim Robbins, who is well on his way to burning into the Mars atomsphere, Tim Robbins knows that they will die trying. He wants them to live and so he pops off his helmet, in the middle of space, and dies in millieseconds as he is flash frozen. That scene actually really works well because of his relationship with his wife. He¹s doing it for her and that makes you all just want to hug somebody. So they get to Mars, land somehow and find Don Cheadle living like Robinson Crusoe. He tells about, get this, the face on mars, they laugh at him, he takes them there and shows him the mountain which was transformed when the super-tornados which killed his crew (Did I mention that is how the first mission gets wiped out?) destroyed the top part of the mountain to reveal a giant face statue (it looks like it is a mile long.) It turns out this thing was left by the long dead martians as a beacon to mankind. We learn that a signal is being broadcast from the face, we answer it with the correct answer and gain admittance where we learn through a Martian Laser show that Mars was once full of life. highly developed society, etc., etc. A meteor hit their planet, essentially killing it, but before it was destroyed, the Martians left, and seeded the still young Earth with the DNA of life. We evolved from Martians. There is one ship left and as the crew races back to blast off to Earth before they miss their launch window, Gary Sinese decides to take off and see where it goes. His crew takes off, in the middle of a dustorm, and soon thereafter, the Sinese craft zooms past them, taking off into a far off galaxy. This last spacecraft is wholly, original and it spins in a barrel roll as it picks up warp speed - very cool!
All in all, the film was pretty rad despite that it is not yet done. Some of the special affects did not look finished, but the film seemed complete. The music did suck, so I hope that it is not the final score. Nobody was credited on the score, so I don¹t know. I have to say, I am really interested in seeing the film again, both because I was to see the finished project and compare it to the real thing, and because it was so damn good. Like Matrix, I am afriad I also might have missed something. As far as science fiction goes, it was much more fun (and intelligent) to watch than ³Phantom Menace² or ³Armageddon. It reminds me a lot of 2001, not only in its story and design, but in its deliberate slowness, with a little of the character stuff from Close Encounters of the Third Kind² There are tons of special affects and something bid seems to happen every ten minutes. "__________'s" death was awesome, the reunion with "___________" was great, and that guy from Sliders was pretty good too. I don¹t remember his name, but he is the comic relief and breaks the tension. There might be a few too many similarities to 2001 for some people, especially the lilting HAL like voice which shows up during an emergency situation, but screw it, the film rocked!
Maybe they will bring back the ride Mission to Mars at Disneyland?
That's it for now. I hope this is of help to you.
Regards from Mars,
"John Carter, Warlord of Mars"
