Ghost of Mars - Now I Get it Review!
I've been watching / listening to this movie on demand and now I finally get it. This was my old review of it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ImmortalSlasher
Ghosts of Mars -
I watched this movie years ago but after seeing The Ward I wanted to see it again. Perhaps it would come off better. But it still doesn't. Something is off about the movie. I can't name it exactly. It has similar themes to other Carpenter movies. The cast is good. You have Jackie Brown, The Transporter, one of the girls from The Faculty, and of course Natasha Henstridge. She looks hot in this movie and it's a better movie for her than those Species movies. But the movie might be played too serious. There are movies like Doomsday and Planet Terror which were inspired by Carpenter movies that are more fun than this movie. Perhaps it's the number of flashbacks. The movie has to get the award for the most flashback scenes I've ever seen. I could see how they might be seen as clever. But at times some make the movie feel slow. And a few probably could have been cut. Or handled better. At the end there is no true resolution to the problem. Or the characters aren't smart enough to realize what saved Natasha's character. So you still have the potential of people getting easily infected. Then when you have them gearing up for another battle that should be fun and exciting. A sequel to look forward to. As it will be the battle to save the city. Or end of the world scenario like many other Carpenter movies like The Thing, They Live, etc. But it doesn't come off as fun or exciting.
|
But now I realize what this movie is and how it works. It's like a Night of the Living Dead type with a sci-fi comic book movie twist. If I saw this movie back when I saw Night of the Living Dead 1990, I would probably like it even more. Back when I originally watched Ghost of Mars, I don't think I realized how cool the actress that played Jackie Brown is. She was in a bunch of old action movies. So her as the leader of this group of space cops is supposed to be another cool role for her. Jason Statham is the wise cracking cop like the Hudson character in Aliens. Of course this is before The Transporter but here you can see how cool the guy will be. And Natasha Henstridge is almost like the MacReady character from The Thing. She doesn't want to be bothered but takes up the lead when trouble hits. I think most know Natasha Henstridge from Species. I never liked those movies that much. I thought the Species Alien design was a rip off of Alien. I didn't know that they were by the same designer. But this is probably the best movie I've seen Natasha Henstridge in. Ice Cube is the bad ass prisoner, like Snake Plissken in from Escape from New York. Once things go crazy, they need him to get out of there.
I still don't think Ghosts of Mars is as fun as Doomsday. But Doomsday took so much from Carpenter and other movies of that time. Ghosts of Mars is just a few twists on the formula. At the end, I think we are supposed to want to see a continuation in comic book or other format. Like how Ice Cube's Desolation Williams character (I love that name) smiles at the screen. This is supposed to be a fun time at the movies. And unlike zombies getting inside a house, which is scary, this is supposed to be both fun and scary. A good movie to watch in the middle of the night.