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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…
Mission to Mars (2000)
This film got great reviews in Europe but lousy reviews in the US. I suspect the lousy reviews were due to something other than the quality of the film because this is a well-made film. The sets and props are about the best I’ve seen, and the CG (computer graphics) are also well done.
The writing is a little weak, especially the dialogue, but these seasoned actors were able to bring those words to life. The plot is nothing special and the narrative is just a straight, linear story throughout – no flashbacks or flash-forwards. It’s a very easy film to watch and doesn’t demand much from the audience, but it’s still entertaining and realistic for the most part. There are a lot of lines of exposition in this film, but I think the filmmakers wanted to make sure anyone could watch this one and easily follow the plot.
Gary Sinise (Lt. Dan from Forrest Gump) gets the most screen time of the main characters, while Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) got the least, and Cheadle was also given the majority of the clumsy exposition lines. (I wonder why?) The women were also slighted in this film, but sadly that’s typical for 20th century Hollywood.
Visually the film was fantastic with realistic scenes on Mars and in space which was somewhat reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey. They didn’t get the science right all the time, and some of the situations and problems they faced were kind of unrealistic, but that’s par for Hollywood.
This is a great film for a family, or a group of people that may include those who might struggle with a more complex plot line or who prefer a temporally linear presentation but it’s entertaining for science geeks, too.
(image from film, fair use)
spoiler - mission to mars
From the visuals, it looks like they went to Andromeda galaxy, which is one of the things the film got wrong with the science -- 2M light-years away.
Yes, you need to put these kinds of toots under a CW even for very old films.
CW= content warning
(if it's not already enabled, just click the CW at the bottom of the edit window when you are composing your toot and then type the CW at the top)
spoiler - mission to mars
@Pat Cheers for the tip. Figured I just word it so there was no spoiler but will learn for next time.
@Pat I remember leaving the cinema (in Australia) and thinking it was a bit mediocre, but I got obsessed with the "where did the Martians go when the left" explanation. Like, obsessed. When I teach astronomy or biology I always refer to it (for fun)!
#NoSpoiler on a 20+ year old film.