DVD Movie Rating for: Mission To Mars

2 out of 5

Movie Plot of: Mission To Mars

When a mysterious storm kills all but one crew member of the first manned mission to mars, a rescue mission is launched. Once on the red planet, the crew finds the sole survivor of the first mission who informs them that this was no ordinary storm. It was meant to protect something. But what?

Commander Luc Goddard is selected to lead the first manned mission to Mars. Upon setting foot on the red planet, the team discovers an ancient, dome like structure which appears to be a beacon. The dome destroys the team and leaves Luc injured. The recently widowed Jim McConnell leads the rescue mission. When they arrive, they find Luc surprisingly alive, and he has spent the time alone learning the secrets of the mysterious construct. The question now becomes: do they enter the dome and answer humanity's oldest question, perhaps risking their lives in doing so, or return to Earth with what they do know and return in force with equipment and supplies?

DVD Production Details of: Mission To Mars

Starring: Gary Sinise, Tim Robbins

Director: Brian De Palma

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby

Studio: Walt Disney Home Video

DVD Release Date: June 4, 2002
DVD Features:
Theatrical trailer(s)

Audio Commentary Animatics to Scene Comparison

Documentary "Visions of Mars"

Visual Effects Analysis Production

Art Gallery

DVD-ROM Features

Widescreen anamorphic format

DVD Easter Eggs

Alternate Ending

Play sequence 15 (End Credits) until the end, then the same sequence restarts again but finishes before the credits with a alternate end scene.

Cast of the movie: Mission To Mars

• Gary Sinise .... Jim McConnell
• Tim Robbins .... Woodrow 'Woody' Blake
• Don Cheadle .... Luke Graham
• Connie Nielsen .... Terri Fisher
• Jerry O'Connell .... Phil Ohlmyer
• Peter Outerbridge .... Sergei Kirov
• Kavan Smith .... Nicholas Willis
• Jill Teed .... Reneé Coté
• Elise Neal .... Debra Graham
• Kim Delaney .... Maggie McConnell
• Marilyn Norry .... NASA Wife
• Freda Perry .... NASA Wife
• Lynda Boyd .... NASA Wife
• Patricia Harras .... NASA Wife
• Robert Bailey Jr. .... Bobby Graham

Photo Gallery of the movie: Mission To Mars

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size, high resolution photographs

Mission To Mars

Reviews of the movie: Mission To Mars

If Brian De Palma directed Mission to Mars for 10-year-olds who've never seen a science fiction film, he can be credited for crafting a marginally successful adventure. Isolated moments in this film serve the highest purpose of its genre, inspiring a sense of wonder and awe in the context of a fascinating future (specifically, the year 2020). But because most of us have seen a lot of science fiction films, it's impossible to ignore this one's derivative plot, cardboard characters, and drearily dumb dialogue. Despite an awesome and painstakingly authentic display of cool technology and dazzling special effects, Mission to Mars is light years away from 2001: A Space Odyssey on the scale of human intelligence.

After dispensing with a few space-jockey clichés, the movie focuses on a Mars-bound rescue mission commanded by Jim McConnell (Gary Sinise), whose team (Tim Robbins, Connie Nielsen, Jerry O'Connell) has been sent to retrieve the sole survivor (Don Cheadle) of a tragic Mars landing. During the sequence en route to Mars, De Palma's in his element with two suspenseful scenes (including a dramatic--albeit somewhat silly--space walk) that are technically impressive. But when this Mission gets to Mars, the movie grows increasingly unconvincing, finally arriving at an alien encounter that more closely resembles an astronomical CGI video game. But this is a $75 million Hollywood movie, and no amount of technical wizardry can lift the burden of a juvenile screenplay. Kudos to Sinise, his costars, and the special effects wizards for making the most of hoary material; shame on just about everyone else involved

"Houston, we have a problem"
This film is such a mess that I had to wonder as I watched it, if I wasn't watching a rough-cut (a cut of the film shown to preview audiences, sometimes before end credits, some visual effects, or music is added). While there are some films that are so bad, it seems they never should have been started, this one probably shouldn't have been left on the scrap heap and never finished. Imagine the money they would have saved on visual effects, which are awesome, and have some serious sound design to go along with them. Everything else (acting and storytelling), unfortunately, is treated as secondary. It's as if director Brian DePalma were trying to beat an impossible deadline set by the studio.

A committee of writers wrote this thing but, despite this, the story is promising. It's the year 2020 (a bit optimistic, I'd say) and we've managed to open an orbiting, multi-nation mission control station. From there, the first manned mission to the planet's surface is launched, led by Luke Graham (Don Cheadle). I was disappointed that they skipped past Man's First Steps on Mars and picked up the mission a few days in. Guess they figured we'd see the real thing soon enough. Before long, the crew meets disaster when they are attacked by a really cool special effect. Mission control has no idea what happened to the crew of four, but they have reason to believe someone may have survived. Jim McConnell (Gary Sinise), was supposed to be the first man to Mars but was forced out when his wife became ill, will now finally get his chance.

DePalma is very dependable when it comes to staging action sequences and incorporating special effects (the only factors that saved "Snake Eyes" and "Mission: Impossible," his last two films). Too bad he can't always get David Mamet (DePalma's The Untouchables) to write his scripts for him. This one seems thrown together, having been either written on the fly or ignored. Just about every cliche' ever used in movie dialogue is dusted off and incorporated somewhere in this script. I felt sorry for this seasoned crew of actors (Tim Robbins, Jerry O'Connell, Kim Delaney, Connie Nielsen, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Sinise, Cheadle) who did the best they could delivering their stupid lines. At times, I just wanted to cover my ears because I couldn't take it any more. Speaking of covering my ears, I could have done without Ennio Morricone's score. When he composed this music, was he watching the wrong film? The inappropriate, distracting score actually ruins some well-executed action sequences.

My conclusion about Mission To Mars is that this could have been a decent sci-fi film if it weren't ruined by amateurish oversights. The finished product, a curious melding of two genres, the realistic space mission movie, ala "Apollo 13," and science fiction, is a mere shadow of what it could have been. The studio probably envisioned something along the lines of Cameron's "The Abyss" or even Kubrick's "2001," but fails. Unfortunately, this means Verhoeven's "Total Recall" is still the best Mars flick around.