Mission To Mars
Touchstone Pictures
2000
Reviewed by William I. Lengeman III
(previously unpublished)
Very Short Review
2001 Lite.
Slightly Longer Review
Not to be confused with Apollo 13, Mission To Mars is the other movie that stars Gary Sinise as an astronaut who's been bumped from a mission only to turn around and attempt to save it.
One of the first things that seemed odd was that a rescue mission to Mars should be mounted, presumably at great expense and effort, to save the one survivor of the previous mission. Especially since he's lost radio contact and may or may not still be alive. But one must sometimes let such lapses of logic slip past if one is to get on with the business of watching movies.
As Sinise, Tim Robbins and the rest of the foursome that makes up the rescue squad prepares to land on Mars the plot does an abrupt switcheroo. By the time they land on the planet, Mission To Mars has morphed from a fairly realistic and entertaining space adventure movie to something else entirely.
It would be tricky to say exactly what without tossing out some big-time spoilers, but one could hardly imagine watching the latter one-third of Mission without being reminded of the likes of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and somewhat lesser flicks such as Contact.
Mission's only major misstep - there were several minor ones - is a distinct tendency toward sappiness in the closing stages. But given the considerable ambition of what was attempted here, director Brian DePalma and his crew should probably be forgiven for slightly marring an otherwise captivating and intriguing film.
Copyright 2007, William I. Lengeman III
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