Mission to Mars (10 Mar 2000)
directed by Brian De Palma
starring Gary Sinise, Don Cheadle, Connie Nielsen, Jerry O'Connell, Kim Delaney, Tim Robbins, Peter Outerbridge, Kavan Smith, Jill Teed, Marilyn Norry, Armin Mueller-Stahl
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MPAA rating: Studio: Touchstone Pictures Script: Lowell Cannon, Jim Thomas, John Thomas, Graham Yost Music: Ennio Morricone Running time: 120 minutes Tags: Cydonia; Mars; Science Fiction; space; terraforming Tactical strength: [5/10]
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for sci-fi violence and mild language
In the year 2020, NASA sends its first manned missions to the surface of Mars. Through some pop-psychology logic, the agency has determined that each mission team should have at least one husband-wife couple on these missions. Of course, the other crew members who have to leave their spouses behind don't seem to mind this decision at all. As part of the backstory, NASA had assigned Jim McConnell (Gary Sinise) and his wife Maggie (Kim Delaney) to the crew of the first Mars mission. Maggie got cancer, and Jim withdrew from the mission to take care of his wife.
So Mission to Mars opens with the farewell party for the newly selected crew of the Mars mission. The mission craft launches and successfully lands on Mars -- in the region of Cydonia. Somehow mission planners have ignored all the data returned by the Mars Global Surveyor and seem to know nothing about the region or its geography. When the astronauts try to use radio telemetry to examine a large rock formation, the formation erupts, killing all the crew but Luke Graham (Don Cheadle) and exposing a smooth face of probable alien construction.
Jim gets himself assigned to the next manned mission to attempt a rescue of the sole survivor. A small meteorite shower strikes the second ship as it nears Mars and the entire crew must make a mad EVA for an orbiting resupply ship. Somehow zero-gravity, no-atmosphere physics must take a backseat to creating audience suspense during the EVA. For example, Woody Blake (Tim Robbins) uses all the propellant in his suit thrusters to reach the resupply vehicle. He hits going too fast and cannot hold on and sails past the vessel. Somehow, he defies his own inertia and the gravity of Mars and comes to a stop a fixed distance away from the vessel. Similar violations of physics continue to occur during the subsequent rescue operation.
As an avid science fiction fan, I find the ideas in Mission to Mars stale and hardly worth the effects budget. Like Lost in Space, the Mission to Mars producers seem more concerned with creating a visually appealing film than creating an interesting plot or hiring some really good astrophysicists as consultants. Mission to Mars tries to recapture the suspense of Apollo 13 and the wonder of Contact and 2001: A Space Odyssey. I think it takes a special breed of director to make a good science fiction movie -- especially one set in our solar system. Brian De Palma (Mission: Impossible, The Untouchables) knows how to handle thrillers, but those skills don't translate directly over to a thriller set in space.
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