Red Planet (2000)
Starring: -Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tom Sizemore
Director: Anthony Hoffman
Synopsis: Heavy handed philosphising undermines what is a fairly decent idea
Reviewed by: Ali Khan

A voice over informs us that rapid ecological degradation of the earth has meant that it has become essential that another planet be colonised. That planet is Mars where oxygen-forming algae have been 'planted' in order to make the planet inhabitable. However, oxygen levels in Mars have been dropping and in order to try and ascertain the reason for this a group of experts including a bio-geneticist, a systems engineer, a terraforming specialist and a mission commander board a space craft bound for the Red Planet.

Unfortunately, the mission soon runs into problems. The exploration module crashes on Mars and with time and air running out the surviving crew have to somehow make it back to the main ship and also avoid whatever it is that is making Mars uninhabitable. The premise is sound enough and an exciting if somewhat predictable film could have been made. Unfortunately, Red Planet tries to cover far too many bases. The result is a half-baked mess. The journey to the planet itself is overly long and rather than develop the characters during that time span the audience is treated to an almost constant stream of scientific jargon and futuristic gadgetry none of which is particularly interesting. Once the group have crash-landed they are faced with a robot gone awry (haven't we seen that before?) and then a colony of fluorescent bugs (seems familiar as well). Anyway, neither strand is developed so neither has much impact on the viewer.

The special effects are impressive without being ground breaking. The surreal landscapes of Mars form the backbone of the cinematography but even here there are far too many lingering shots of the stranded survivors trudging across sweeping vistas. This simply serves to slow the film down further neither a visibly overweight Val Kilmer nor the usually reliable Tom Sizemore are able to infuse any life into the dull script. Carrie-Anne Moss seems to be finding a niche in the tough sci-fi female position but could find herself quickly typecast. Red Planet is not as bad as many of the films of the year but it is an unwieldy, top heavy and expensive piece of mediocrity.