I am, as most of the people who regularly read my reviews know, one of the few people who actually liked Mission to Mars (***). Besides that I didn't find the movie to have nearly as much flaws as movie critics and film buffs all over the world claimed it did, there was another reason I liked Mission to Mars. It was the premise. It's not that I am a huge sci-fi fan or anything, but I love movies about space exploration. That is the reason I chose to see Red Planet this weekend. It wasn't the trailer, it wasn't the reviews, it wasn't the cast, it wasn't the special effects - none of those things impressed me. Having that in mind, I entered the movie theater with low expectations. In a way, I was pleasantly surprised.
Red Planet is not a bad movie. In fact, it's hard for me to think of anything bad about it. It's just... average. Average acting, average directing, average writing, average effects, average everything!
What surprised me about this movie was the lack of thrills in it. Even the lamest action flicks out there have a couple of cool cheap thrills, "Red Planet" doesn't. I don't know whether something was done wrong or there were just no tense situations, but this movie never reached a high level of excitement. The special effects didn't really add to the excitement factor of this movie. They were good but mediocre.
The direction in this movie is rather flat, but the acting makes up for that. Although I hate Kilmer, I have to admit he was good as usual. Tom Sizemore did surprisingly well and Carrie Anne Moss gave a performance that was as good if not better than that in "The Matrix".
I liked this movie's script. It's not a masterpiece and it's not original but it's dialogue is smart and the character developement is above your usual sci-fi flick.
With more work on the script this could have been a far better movie, but it feels like Chuck Praffer, the writer, is talented, but he wasn't giving his best.
Overall the good equals the bad which makes for a so-so movie. It's certainly watchable and an OK way to pass 2 hours, but it's not anything above the average. |
