An earlier reviewer asked why this film is so hated, so I'll try to summarize the answer to that question in my review: Firstly, this film has a competent cast of actors--no one exceptional, but most of the protagonists are recognizable from TV series or films that have been largely successful.
The project started out as Escape From Mars--the latest installment of the Snake Plissken / Escape From N.Y. franchise, which was then changed when Escape From L.A. failed to meet box office expectations.
So a successful 80s franchise was given a late-90s early-2000s facelift. A much heavier metal and industrial-influenced rock soundtrack replaced the tamer pure-synth soundtracks from Escape From N.Y. and Escape From L.A.
Carpenter actually received help from some pretty good guitarists, but the soundtrack itself is hardly a masterpiece. It tries hard to give the film an edge that just doesn't materialize in the rest of the film.
To start with, while the acting isn't terrible, the writing and directing in the film really limits the effectiveness of the acting talent. Most characters are relatively flat and uncompelling. Some pseudo-futuristic slang is thrown in, but the dialog feels unnatural and perfunctory. The interactions between Statham and Henstridge, in particular, feels a bit creepy at times (I really thought Statham's character was going to rape our heroine during the setup to the kiss scene).
Worse, Pam Grier's character comes off very unconvincing as a police commander, and her wardrobe/makeup didn't help matters.
Which brings me to one of my main gripes with the movie: the set design and overall aesthetics of the film has the quality of a late 80s/early 90s B movie. I don't doubt the sets and props were expensive to build, but the very outdated aesthetics and lazy designs (e.g. the alien corridor, the freight train, the buildings, etc.) simply don't hold up to the standards of films released after the mid-90s.
Maybe as a designer, I'm more sensitive to these things, but what makes older sci-fi movies look dated is often a lack of attention to detail in the design of props and sets, or having designs that just don't mesh with the trends in industrial design/fashion/consumer tastes in the intervening years.
Ghosts of Mars' costumes (especially the police uniforms), sets (the small mining town is really the only setting for 99% of the film), props (the heavy machinery and weapons) all look very amateurish compared to the much more convincing and skillfully executed designs of other contemporary sci-fi films. Granted, Mission to Mars and even Red Planet had much larger budgets, but good design doesn't cost that much.
The film can be forgiven for the low quality practical effects and makeup, which are often laughably bad. But other poorly executed details are simply the result of sloppiness and lack of effort.
Case in point? The Martian language basically boils down to the actor just repeating "lah-lah-lah-lah-lah..." I'm dead serious. It comes off exactly as stupid as it sounds.
The leather police uniforms also look tacky, further giving the film a cheap, straight-to-video feel. I can see an 80s audience believing that this is how future police officers might dress, but it has zero relation to the evolution of police uniforms (in any country) in more recent decades (which tends towards utility over arbitrary aesthetics).
But the greatest sin of this action horror film is the terrible action scenes. I can live with low production values and a simple plot. I can even live with the abundant plot holes (like the rookie shooting the possessed prisoner and endangering everyone for no reason and the complete lack of reaction from everyone else, or the implausible plan used to attack the aliens). I can even ignore the cheesy special effects and makeup, as well as the 90s metal band look that all the aliens have.
However, I can't overlook the terribly choreographed fight scenes in the film and the stupid, contrived weapons that the aliens wield. An abundance of gory deaths doesn't come close to making up for Carpenter's utter lack of talent for directing a contemporary action film. The fights look incredibly fake, and the gruesome deaths and dismemberment scenes are clumsily edited in a way that disrupts the pacing of the action sequences (as if all the action pauses for a second as everyone watches someone get decapitated).
All in all, this is just an incredibly mediocre film from a director who seems to have either lost his touch or simply fallen behind the times. It's incredibly disappointing to say the least.
The project started out as Escape From Mars--the latest installment of the Snake Plissken / Escape From N.Y. franchise, which was then changed when Escape From L.A. failed to meet box office expectations.
So a successful 80s franchise was given a late-90s early-2000s facelift. A much heavier metal and industrial-influenced rock soundtrack replaced the tamer pure-synth soundtracks from Escape From N.Y. and Escape From L.A.
Carpenter actually received help from some pretty good guitarists, but the soundtrack itself is hardly a masterpiece. It tries hard to give the film an edge that just doesn't materialize in the rest of the film.
To start with, while the acting isn't terrible, the writing and directing in the film really limits the effectiveness of the acting talent. Most characters are relatively flat and uncompelling. Some pseudo-futuristic slang is thrown in, but the dialog feels unnatural and perfunctory. The interactions between Statham and Henstridge, in particular, feels a bit creepy at times (I really thought Statham's character was going to rape our heroine during the setup to the kiss scene).
Worse, Pam Grier's character comes off very unconvincing as a police commander, and her wardrobe/makeup didn't help matters.
Which brings me to one of my main gripes with the movie: the set design and overall aesthetics of the film has the quality of a late 80s/early 90s B movie. I don't doubt the sets and props were expensive to build, but the very outdated aesthetics and lazy designs (e.g. the alien corridor, the freight train, the buildings, etc.) simply don't hold up to the standards of films released after the mid-90s.
Maybe as a designer, I'm more sensitive to these things, but what makes older sci-fi movies look dated is often a lack of attention to detail in the design of props and sets, or having designs that just don't mesh with the trends in industrial design/fashion/consumer tastes in the intervening years.
Ghosts of Mars' costumes (especially the police uniforms), sets (the small mining town is really the only setting for 99% of the film), props (the heavy machinery and weapons) all look very amateurish compared to the much more convincing and skillfully executed designs of other contemporary sci-fi films. Granted, Mission to Mars and even Red Planet had much larger budgets, but good design doesn't cost that much.
The film can be forgiven for the low quality practical effects and makeup, which are often laughably bad. But other poorly executed details are simply the result of sloppiness and lack of effort.
Case in point? The Martian language basically boils down to the actor just repeating "lah-lah-lah-lah-lah..." I'm dead serious. It comes off exactly as stupid as it sounds.
The leather police uniforms also look tacky, further giving the film a cheap, straight-to-video feel. I can see an 80s audience believing that this is how future police officers might dress, but it has zero relation to the evolution of police uniforms (in any country) in more recent decades (which tends towards utility over arbitrary aesthetics).
But the greatest sin of this action horror film is the terrible action scenes. I can live with low production values and a simple plot. I can even live with the abundant plot holes (like the rookie shooting the possessed prisoner and endangering everyone for no reason and the complete lack of reaction from everyone else, or the implausible plan used to attack the aliens). I can even ignore the cheesy special effects and makeup, as well as the 90s metal band look that all the aliens have.
However, I can't overlook the terribly choreographed fight scenes in the film and the stupid, contrived weapons that the aliens wield. An abundance of gory deaths doesn't come close to making up for Carpenter's utter lack of talent for directing a contemporary action film. The fights look incredibly fake, and the gruesome deaths and dismemberment scenes are clumsily edited in a way that disrupts the pacing of the action sequences (as if all the action pauses for a second as everyone watches someone get decapitated).
All in all, this is just an incredibly mediocre film from a director who seems to have either lost his touch or simply fallen behind the times. It's incredibly disappointing to say the least.