Stats:

Movie:
Mission To Mars

Stars:
Gary Sinise
Don Cheadle
Tim Robbins
Jerry O'Connell

Date: 2000

Bottom Line:
Ok, but go with the original, not this pale imitator.

Mission To Mars

According to the ads, I was expecting a modern update to "2001: A Space Odyssey". Instead, what we got was a so-so Science-Fiction movie. Most of the really cool special effects from the ads only occur during the last 20 minutes of the flick. Now, don't get me wrong, - they are pretty spectacular when we finally get to see them, but it takes nearly 90 minutes until we get to that point.

In many ways, "Mission To Mars" is the spawn of "2001." There are definitely nods to set & costume design elements from that film. The same space suits are used, all the nations of the earth are together in the same revolving wheeled-space station design, we have the same revolving space ship set (although on a much smaller scale. Clearly, more of the budget went to computer effects this go-round than on the original.), even the space ship design is similar. Luckily, the PanAm stewardesses in the silly round helmet hats were grounded for this Mission.

The nations of the world send four of their brightest (and most fluent in English) to explore Mars. Everything is going fine until they find a rock formation that looks like a cross between the Ayres Rock in the Australian Outback and a sculpted head. The entire team, of course, goes out to check it out. The rock attacks them (this is the hurricane that swallows astronauts from the ads & the only section of the ads that is not in the last 20 minutes of the film). Don Cheadle is the only survivor. He barely manages to get a transmission out to tell everybody what happened.

Tim Robbins heads the rescue team that goes to Mars to rescue Cheadle. The rescue team uses the same spaceship design that was sent to Jupiter in "2001" and has to abandon their ship after it gets damaged in meteor storm. It seems that the ship in "2001" was built more sturdy than this one. Must have been a lemon on the assembly line. On the way to the surface, Robbins kills himself so that (gulp!) his wife can live! Robbins' suicide is clearly where the special effect budget was trimmed to pay for the other cool stuff. The remaining crew gets to the surface, and finds Cheadle who is going mental on the surface. Cheadle makes a full psychological recovery after he finally gets a good haircut again (weird Samson allegory). Cheadle figures out why the rock formation had it in for him and the others in his original crew and tests his theory. This time, they learn from their mistakes and send a cute little robot to make first contact with the big, nasty monolith. They're on the money and we FINALLY get to see all those cool special effects that we saw on the ads. Sinise goes off with the Martians to their home and the rest go back to the space station over near the moon. The audience gets to go home or to the bathroom, whichever their bodies say is more important first.

Gary Sinise looks absolutely awful in this movie. There's only one scene in which he even remotely looks healthy. His character doesn't call for him to look this bad, so there's gotta be something else going on. Maybe the Martians can bring him back to health.

This is an ok movie. I can't recommend rushing right out to see it. Would make an ok rental, but if you get a choice between "Mission To Mars" and "2001", select "2001" every time. The premise is ok and makes sense in a weird way, but overall, the film is just not as fulfilling as "2001" was.