Film Review: Red Planet (2000)

Even with Y2K Bug and other millenarianist concerns failing to materialise, many at the beginning of 21st Century remained quite concerned over subsequent future of humanity. At least this is the impression you might get based on the basic premise behind Red Planet, 2000 science fiction film directed by Anthony Hoffman. The plot is set in year 2057, when the Earth is so polluted that survival of humanity looks increasingly unlikely, Thankfully, planet Mars might provide alternative home after terraforming project involving algae. The algae have, however, suddenly began to disappear so the expedition is sent to investigate the cause. After months of interplanetary voyage, crew of “Mars-1” spaceship is preparing to land when it is hit by gamma ray burst. Mission commander Kate Bowman (played by Carrie-Anne Moss) is forced to stay in orbit, while the rest of her crew prematurely enters the landing module and gets on Martian surface in worst possible conditions. Astronauts led by Robby Gallagher (played by Val Kilmer) have lost precious equipment, ended miles away from the designated landing site and realised that they would soon exhaust their oxygen supply. Too make things worse, they also find out that they won’t have only to fight planet’s poisonous atmosphere, but also a malfunctioning military robot that considers them hostile targets and even more hostile specimens of Mars’ own fauna.

Red Planet was released to cinemas few months after Mission to Mars, Brian De Palma’s film that used the same setting and very similar plot. De Palma’s film turned into one of the worst disappointments of his career and there was some hope that Anthony Hoffman, for whom this film represented a feature debut, would likely be better. Those hopes are dashed very soon after Carrie-Anne Moss’ opening narration after which even the less experienced cinephiles would easily guess the plot based on multitude of cliches picked from different (and almost always better) science fiction film. So, the top astronauts on a space ship are behaving like teenagers in high school. Carrie-Anne Moss is here forced to, in a way, repeat her role from The Matrix, but plot doesn’t allow her to take part in combat so she is reduced to wearing skimpy clothes and having concerned looks from the ship in orbit. Her male colleagues don’t fare much better, being reduced to cartoonish stereotypes and played by mostly disinterested cast. The only exception is British veteran character actor Terence Stamp whose character of science officer Chantillas is supposed to give elevate the film by touching deep philosophical issues in his dialogue lines. Producers, on the other hand, thought that such content was too complicated for intellectual abilities of targetted audience, so Chantillas gets killed off early on and audience has to settle with simpler, but younger and better looking characters played by Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore. Kilmer’s looks also clearly indicates which of those two would survive and reunite with Bowman to bring romantic subplot to Red Planet. Screenwriters, apparently not impressed enough with harsh and unforgiving conditions of space and “simple” survival, burden protagonist with killer robots and murderous alien life forms and do that in utterly unconvincing way. Red Planet became notorious for on set feuds between former friends Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore and later turned into major flop at the box office. Those who happen to endure this film would soon realise that the initial verdict by the audience was quite justified.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

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