I had really high hopes for this film. It looked like this was going to be a film that took advantage of everything we know about Mars. We'd be sending out the first explorers with their robot dog - which would freak out and kill everyone.

I had such high hopes.

Red Planet is based on a lot of what we know about Mars. It's the not too near future, we've ruined Earth, and now we want to colonize Mars and ruin it as well. We started the terraforming process with algae. But suddenly the oxygen levels have dropped. We send a science team to Mars to find out why.

Just as the ship gets to Mars, it is almost totaled by a solar flare (bad science). But the Commander decides to send the EVA team to the surface anyway (divide and be conquered). The EVA team crashes on the planet. The habitat they were counting on has been destroyed. There is 15 minutes of air left in their suits. Meanwhile we learn that if they had just waited and looked at the habitat from orbit before going to the surface, they would have known that it was destroyed (so the Commander is incompetent.) And the robot dog is really a robot cat who went on the blink after the crash landing, and decided to kill the EVA team.

The writer of this film should be tossed into an airlock and flushed! No one in their right mind would act like this on a real mission. Astronauts are very careful people since their next mistake can cost lives. Most of the people in this film died, and no one in the audience really cared. The write has completely failed to create any sort of drama.

Sucks and Blows!

Film Facts

Cast
• Val Kilmer
• Carrie-Anne Moss
• Benjamin Bratt
• Tom Sizemore
• Simon Baker
• Terence Stamp
• Bob Neill

Directed by Antony Hoffman

Released in 2000

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Reviewed by Mongo