Subject: Review: Mission to Mars (2000)

From: Michael Dequina <[email-masked]>
Date: 17 Mar 2000 03:55:13 GMT

_Mission_to_Mars_ (PG) ** (out of ****)

Virtual missions to Mars are not new to the Walt Disney Company.  Long
before its much ballyhooed revamp, the Tomorrowland area of Disneyland
prominently featured (right next to Space Mountain) a little curio called
Mission to Mars.  It was an attraction, not a ride: patrons would sit in
a circular auditorium that was made to look like a spaceship, and through
some images projected on screens, fancy lighting, and--most important of
all--some vibrating seats, earthlings made "trips" to Mars by the
hundreds about every half hour.

That attraction was indeed cheesy, but after seeing Disney/Touchstone's
new film bearing the name _Mission_to_Mars_, I could not help but feel
nostalgic for those long-gone yesterdays in Tomorrowland.  For one thing,
at least Mission to Mars (the attraction) had vibrating seats--something
that would make this shockingly cornball effort from director Brian
DePalma a little easier to sit through to the very end.  But not by much.

The year is 2020, and NASA has sent a four-astronaut crew to the red
planet.  After encountering a strange storm-like force, the only person
left alive is Mission Commander Luke Graham (Don Cheadle).  A
rescue/recovery team is soon deployed; in this team are Graham's old
friends Jim McConnell (Gary Sinise), Woody Blake (Tim Robbins), and
Woody's wife Dr. Terri Fisher (Connie Nielsen), as well as scientist Phil
Ohlmyer (Jerry O'Connell).  Of course, such an operation is easier
planned than executed, and the crew of the Mars Recovery Mission run into
their fair share of trouble en route to the planet.  Their troubles are
encapsulated in an effective extended suspense sequence where one
calamity seamlessly and convincingly leads to another.  The palpable
tension that DePalma is able to create easily compensates for some
shameless product placement.

It's quite unfortunate, then, that this sequence would end on a forced,
unintentionally comic note of melodrama, not helped by some amateurish
emoting by Nielsen.  Just as, at one point, an indicator on Terri's
spacesuit reads "Point of no return," this is also the juncture where
_Mission_to_Mars_ gets progressively, irreparably worse.  Upon landing on
Mars, the film, which had been a diverting spacefaring adventure with an
impressive command of technical detail, decides to become a sci-fi film
of ideas, à la _2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_ or _Contact_.  Those familiar with
DePalma's body of work know that his instincts are more attuned to the
former than the latter.

The problem with the turn runs deeper than a directorial miscast,
however.  _Mission_to_Mars_ has already used up over half of its
113-minute length by the time the script goes all profound, hardly enough
space to tackle the highfalutin ideas writers Jim Thomas, John Thomas,
and Graham Yost want to tackle.  So it's little surprise that this part
of the story feels rushed, which, in turn, results in a superficial
treatment that renders the point laughably trite.  The film's trailer not
only completely divulges its big "secret" (I won't spoil it for those who
haven't seen it), but also lifts the film's exploration of this idea in
its complete form.  Those intrigued by the trailer and looking for deeper
backup of the central idea in the actual film won't find it, for what's
in the trailer is all there is.

Such a disastrous final act is especially disappointing in the case of
_Mission_to_Mars_, for it is an adequate entertainment for its first
two-thirds.  Pedestrian story details such as Jim's sadness over his
deceased astronaut wife are smoothed over by the convincing acting of
Sinise, Cheadle, and Robbins; the effects, which are, if hardly
groundbreaking, functional; and the painstaking attention to the
technical side of space travel.  Unfortunately, what one remembers
strongly about _Mission_to_Mars_ is the corny conclusion, which leaves a
bitter taste--so bitter, that it was able to completely wash away the
flavor of the unlimited free Mars candy bars given away at the press
screening.

Michael Dequina
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Mr. Brown's Movie Site:  http://welcome.to/mrbrown
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