Subject: Review: Ghosts of Mars (2001)

From: David N. Butterworth <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 02:30:36 -0000

JOHN CARPENTER'S GHOSTS OF MARS
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2001 David N. Butterworth

*1/2 (out of ****)

	John Carpenter makes B-movies.  Always has ("Halloween," "Escape from New
York," "The Thing") and, by the looks of it ("They Live," "Escape from
L.A.," "Vampires"), always will.

	Carpenter's latest horror opus with a science fiction bent (or science
fiction outing with a schlock horror bent) is the aptly-titled "John
Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars" (in case, I suppose, you went looking for
someone else's "Ghosts of Mars").  Like all those films prefixed by the
very possessive "John Carpenter's," "Ghosts of Mars" is an unashamed
B-movie punctuated by a B-movie plot, B-movie actors, and B-movie special
effects.

	In category one, above, we have a storyline that borders on idiotic (and,
at times, chaotic).  Dormant Martians (i.e., swirling red gases) awakened
by meddling humans possess the souls of hapless mining colonists rendering
them testy Marilyn Manson lookalikes.  All this explained (in flashback) to
some grand Pooh-Bah counsel by Martian Police official Melanie Ballard
(Natasha Henstridge, from the sub-"Species" films), the only returnee on a
silly-looking train.  Officer Ballard went in to bring back incarcerated
felon James "Desolation" Williams; what she found was not a pretty picture.

	In the second category we have Ms. Henstridge, her blonde hair pulled back
tightly and awkwardly into a ponytail, Ice Cube (as the appropriately-named
"Desolation"), Pam Grier (briefly, oddly--who wanted to work with whom I
wonder?), and a host of extras all assuming that the story and special
effects were going to carry this film and therefore they didn't need to try
too hard.

	In category number three we have, in addition to those swirling red gases
and the silly-looking train, a couple of bird's-eye-view shots of a
sprawling Martian metropolis (reddish also).  State-of-the-art special
effects have never been a Carpenter trademark and once again the
writer/director (who seems to have no problem finding work, however)
doesn't waste any of the film's budget in that department.

	"Ghosts of Mars" is lock, laughing stock, and barrel all your standard
Carpenter fare: dingy interiors, cluttered exteriors, inane dialogue, lots
of leather, scarred, crazed-looking aliens, and lots and lots of weaponry.
The film often and always explodes into warfare without
warning--spontaneously, stupidly.  Carpenter might like to think he's made
a western here but it's a western without any real heroes, villains, or
border conflicts.  It's just the shootouts minus a hissing Snake Plissken.
I never thought I'd miss the guy but I do.

	It's not *all* the same, however.  Dubbed the "one-note wonder" for his
minimalist music soundtracks, Carpenter seems to have graduated from
simplistic (yet effective) scoring by highlighting his action with loud,
screeching guitar work.  Fortunately this drowns out a lot of the dialogue.
 The final exchange between Henstridge and, er, Cube though is both audible
*and* priceless.

	Mars has proven an infertile breeding ground for Hollywood in the last
year or so, what with the stillborn "Mission to Mars" and "Red Planet"
(with Val Kilmer).  "Ghosts of Mars" sadly adds to those disappointing
returns (in its opening weekend it was overshadowed by a bunch of sequels,
among them "American Pie 2" and "Rush Hour 2").  The irony is that the Mars
in Carpenter's film feels sadly absent.  There are occasional references to
the red planet, of course, but the film might as well have been set in
Perth Amboys than on earth's closest neighbor.

	Two things keep "John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars" from getting a huge slap
upside the head.  1. Henstridge keeps her top on (miraculously), and 2. the
film doesn't pretend to be anything it's not.  What that means, however, is
that fans of superior, intelligent, grade A sci-fi/horror are singularly
out of luck.

--
David N. Butterworth
[email-masked]

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X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 246511
X-RT-TitleID: 1109551
X-RT-SourceID: 878
X-RT-AuthorID: 1393
X-RT-RatingText: 1.5/4