Mission to Mars (Movie Review)
Ever since the Viking missions of 1976, there has been a fascination and speculation about what appears to be a giant face staring up from the surface of Mars. Part of the Cydonia region, the Face is the most striking of a whole cluster of structures that appear to be artificial in origin. It would seem that there might just be more to our little neighbor than first meets the eye. Barsoom is indeed a mysterious place.
So it should come as no surprise that, perhaps more than any other celestial body, Mars has fueled the imaginations of SF writers for the better part of a century. The August 1996 announcement by NASA that possible bacteria-like life forms had been found in a Martian meteorite, and the stunningly successful Pathfinder mission, which touched down on July 4, 1997, have brought forth a whole new wave of Mars Mania. Everyone has been talking about the Red Planet over the past few years.
Never one to be left out of a trend, Hollywood has churned out a couple of movies on the subject. The first out of the gate, Brian De Palma's Mission to Mars, focuses on the Face and attempts to answer a question that has been getting a lot of attention recently: Could life on Earth have originated on Mars?
The PR department at Buena Vista did a great job of promoting the film and making it look interesting and exciting. It's one of those movies that looks great on the poster and nags at you as a "must see."
Unfortunately, Mission to Mars is plagued by a lack of originality, poor plotting, and uneven pacing. If you've seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, then you've pretty much already seen Mission to Mars. Throw in the giant, attacking dust monster from The Mummy and then you really have seen it all.
Even though 2001 has nothing to do with Mars, De Palma's movie is so
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