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Regardless (and just kidding ... maybe), the combustible Kilmer is surprisingly subdued in this new sci-fi thriller about astronauts facing disaster and terror on the famed red planet.
He plays the good guy, a selfless, humble hero willing to sacrifice all to save his fellow Americans, especially his gal-pal in charge of the doomed mission. Jeez, perhaps Kilmer can act, after all.
Salvation
The year is 2050. Listening to a narration that sounds like a dull drone, we learn that Planet Earth is threatened with destruction due to human arrogance, pollution and stupidity. Mars is targeted as a possible salvation, although the particulars of how that would work are a tad fuzzy.
The mission is touted as mankind's first trip to Mars (the filmmakers are trying to forget that Brian De Palma went where no man has gone before just last March, although his Mission To Mars movie crash-landed at the box office).
In Red Planet, the astronauts find oxygen, algae and a weirdo plague of small deadly monsters. Only two of the six-member mission crew will be alive for the big climax scene that will determine if any of them survive. That's the drama.
The astronauts are led by Carrie-Anne Moss, a woman with moxie who does her commander's turn with a Sigourney Weaver-like sensibility. Besides Kilmer, the men on the mission are played by Terence Stamp, Tom Sizemore, Benjamin Bratt and Simon Baker. Only Kilmer and Sizemore have good dialogue that allows them to develop their roles beyond stereotypes.
Oddly, while eliminating these characters one by one in horrible circumstances as this kind of film routinely demands, the most interesting one bites the red dust first. That robs the film of its social texture far too soon.
Perhaps it doesn't matter. First-time director Anthony Hoffman's movie, which seems to borrow from the Alien series and 2001: A Space Odyssey, is passable enough. A few of the scenes provide real tension and some dynamic action. But this is hardly the stuff of sci-fi dreams.
The 'real' science is grade-school stuff. The plotting is predictable. The characters are stock figures plucked out of Star Trek episodes and the adventure seems unimaginative.
Lacklustre
The spaceship scenes are lacklustre. On board, faces are lit so dark that even Stamp -- a man with a magnetic visage and mesmerizing voice -- fades into the shadows in the opening scenes as the spaceship makes its way towards Mars.
Even the special effects lack razzle-dazzle. Shot in deserts in Australia and Jordan, the Mars landscape looks exactly like what it is, an Earth desert shot through a red filter. Ho hum.
This trip is strictly for fanatics of the genre.
(This film is rated PG)