According to all sources, this film was co-written and directed by John Carpenter. The same man who gave birth to the modern slasher genre with the immensely terrifying "Halloween." The same man who scared the hell out of us with his remake "The Thing." The same man who, despite its trashy appearance, still managed to creep us out in his remake of "Village of the Damned." It is nearly impossible to believe that the same man who gave us those movies produced the garbage known as "Ghosts of Mars."
Everything about "Ghosts of Mars" sucks. The acting is wooden, the dialogue is awful, the special effects are terrible, and the action scenes are dull and lifeless. And for someone who once earned the title "Master of Terror," there's not a scare to be found. Okay, fine, there is one mildly (emphasis on "mild") creepy chase sequence.
Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge) is a cop who is assigned to take a crew to a remote Mars outpost and bring back a notorious prisoner, known as James "Desolation" Williams (Ice Cube). Of course, when they get there, they find a nasty surprise waiting for them: everyone has been possessed by a bad special effect that looks like red mist, and it turns everyone into some sort of zombie.
The acting is bad across the board. Natasha Henstridge tries to create another Ellen Ripley, but she fails spectacularly. Ice Cube could have had screen presence here, but his performance is so low-key that he would be forgotten in every scene if the camera didn't always focus on him. Pam Grier gives it her all, but it doesn't help much. Clea Duvall is annoying as the whiny rookie. Jason Statham has a habit of making it hard to understand what he's saying (and it's not because of his accent). Worse are his attempts to seduce Melanie, which are embarrassing. Joanna Cassidy has the role of the survivor who knows what's going on, but calling her performance "bland" is putting it too kindly; she's awful. Richard Cetrone, who is supposed to be the main villain (I think) as "Big Daddy Mars," but he's so underdeveloped that we can't even be sure of that (his name only comes from the credits-no one actually calls him this during the movie). No one else serves any purpose (and a good few of the members of the cast are not even given anything to say).
As a person who respects John Carpenter (his kinds of movies are not my forte), this is more than a huge disappointment coming from him. It's so lazily done that it's almost as if he only did one take on every scene. But the worst is that he gives no set up. And for someone like him, one would expect him to know that shots that set the scene are essential. But the badness of his job doesn't stop there. The transitions from shot to shot are terrible, like something on a PowerPoint presentation. He uses a jumping frame effect for about two minutes, then never again (and he uses it for no good reason). The soundtrack, which is heavy metal, is terrible (this is coming from the man who gave us the chilling and unforgettable theme to "Halloween"). The special effects are so bad that even in the 80's they would have seemed terrible.
Please, do yourself a favor. Avoid "Ghosts of Mars." And Mr. Carpenter, actually put some effort into your work next time.
Everything about "Ghosts of Mars" sucks. The acting is wooden, the dialogue is awful, the special effects are terrible, and the action scenes are dull and lifeless. And for someone who once earned the title "Master of Terror," there's not a scare to be found. Okay, fine, there is one mildly (emphasis on "mild") creepy chase sequence.
Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge) is a cop who is assigned to take a crew to a remote Mars outpost and bring back a notorious prisoner, known as James "Desolation" Williams (Ice Cube). Of course, when they get there, they find a nasty surprise waiting for them: everyone has been possessed by a bad special effect that looks like red mist, and it turns everyone into some sort of zombie.
The acting is bad across the board. Natasha Henstridge tries to create another Ellen Ripley, but she fails spectacularly. Ice Cube could have had screen presence here, but his performance is so low-key that he would be forgotten in every scene if the camera didn't always focus on him. Pam Grier gives it her all, but it doesn't help much. Clea Duvall is annoying as the whiny rookie. Jason Statham has a habit of making it hard to understand what he's saying (and it's not because of his accent). Worse are his attempts to seduce Melanie, which are embarrassing. Joanna Cassidy has the role of the survivor who knows what's going on, but calling her performance "bland" is putting it too kindly; she's awful. Richard Cetrone, who is supposed to be the main villain (I think) as "Big Daddy Mars," but he's so underdeveloped that we can't even be sure of that (his name only comes from the credits-no one actually calls him this during the movie). No one else serves any purpose (and a good few of the members of the cast are not even given anything to say).
As a person who respects John Carpenter (his kinds of movies are not my forte), this is more than a huge disappointment coming from him. It's so lazily done that it's almost as if he only did one take on every scene. But the worst is that he gives no set up. And for someone like him, one would expect him to know that shots that set the scene are essential. But the badness of his job doesn't stop there. The transitions from shot to shot are terrible, like something on a PowerPoint presentation. He uses a jumping frame effect for about two minutes, then never again (and he uses it for no good reason). The soundtrack, which is heavy metal, is terrible (this is coming from the man who gave us the chilling and unforgettable theme to "Halloween"). The special effects are so bad that even in the 80's they would have seemed terrible.
Please, do yourself a favor. Avoid "Ghosts of Mars." And Mr. Carpenter, actually put some effort into your work next time.