MARS ATTACKS!
A film review by Paul Miller
Copyright 1996 Paul Miller
As I went to the ticket window, I found myself very excited about Tim Burton's new film, Mars Attacks!. I thought this was going to be one of the best films I have ever seen. This is why they invented theatrical trailers. They make it look like the movie will be entertaining, energetic, and fun, but this isn't always the case.
I'm sure if you've seen the trailer at one time or another, you would be compelled to see this movie. This is what sucked me in. Congrats Warner Bros., this is a super trailer.
Enough about the trailer, on with the movie.
The movies' first 45 minutes or so are about the most boring I've ever seen. Basically, it introduces most of the characters and manages to kill off a few. I was very disappointed when Michael J. Fox, who played a news reporter, was killed off in the first half hour. This set a sad tone on the movie that would not be soon forgotten.
Anyway, the Martians surround Earth and they send us a signal that they are friendly. They land in a desert in Nevada and after a dove was let off as a sign of peace, the ambush begins.
After a fake apology, the Martians take out Congress and the rest of the movie unfolds as you might think, with different personalities joining the mix.
This movie (in terms of structure) could be compared to From Dusk till Dawn, in that there are two stories in one movie. Dusk was critized because the beginning developed characters masterfully then they got to the bar only to fight vampires. What I mean is the second part of this movie is what I thought the whole darn thing would be like, funny, imaginative, and hip. But this is not what happened.
If the whole movie could have been like the second half, we could be talking classic, but unfortunately this didn't happen. As much as I enjoyed the second part, the terseness of the first part overshadows this and makes the movie worse than it should have been.
Another thing that upset me to a point was how the filmakers mislead you before you even went inside the theater. Glenn Close was given second billing when actually she was only given about 15-20 minutes of screen time. Another thing was Danny DeVito was given fifth billing when he was in the movie no more than three minutes. Heck, Tom Jones and Jim Brown were in the movie more.
All these criticisms seem make it seem like I hated this movie. This was not the case. Simply, the movie was not as good as it could have been, or actually should have been.
** (out of four)
Paul's scale
**** - Superior in every way *** - Excellent, Far above average ** - Average, Nothing Special * - Terrible
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