After all the dismissive comments in the reviews, most of which seem to focus on the terribly irrelevant fact that the film is not yet profitable, let me state: it’s ok. It is certainly more interesting than, say, Clash of the Titans or The Thing or Battle Los Angeles or X Men or or or … it is a better Summer blockbuster, in other words, than the previous summer blockbusters, and it’s not even out in summer! Director Andrew Stanton knows how to deal with material he was given, regardless whether it’s little fish looking for their family or big fish jumping across Mars. The problem about the film really is it’s hero, and the way he has been conceived some 100 years ago: would you develop his character today, you would probably decide against his ability to bounce across Mars like a rubber ball, because various efforts at Hulk have proven that this always look stupid. On the other hand, there are several attractive and scantly clad girls with olive-brown skin and exotic accent that make up for any plot deficits, there are magnificent landscapes that prove again that nothing beats on-location shots (who DID they get all the equipment to Mars??) and there is my personal favourite, “The Wire” ’s McNulty dressed in antique nipple-free warrior gear (where the nipple and several other body items seem to have been cgi-improved), fighting the fight for … against … I cannot remember. That may be a weak point: at some point I stopped caring which Martian sub-tribe fights which other and why, I just remembered the girl does not want to marry the guy. But most of the guys with four arms and a turtle head were nice, and one of them was voice-cast by Willem Dafoe, which really was not necessary.
So: not really good, better than others, very strange how this film got so thrashed by that little public that actually bothered seeing it…
thomas4cinema 