Subject: REVIEW: MARS ATTACKS! (1996)

From: [email-masked] (Michael Dequina)
Date: 16 Dec 1996 15:02:44 GMT

MARS ATTACKS!
                       A film review by Michael Dequina
                        Copyright 1996 Michael Dequina

(PG-13) *** 1/2 (out of ****)

        After his excellent 1994 biopic of the worst filmmaker of all time,
Ed Wood, it was only a matter of time before Tim Burton made an Ed Wood
movie of his own.  Two years later we have Mars Attacks!, a darkly humorous
sendup of and affectionate homage to B-grade sci-fi epics of the 1950s.
        Like all alien invasion epics, Mars Attacks! follows a pastiche of
characters and how they cope with a hostile Martian invasion.  The players
include the President of the United States (Jack Nicholson); the First Lady
(Glenn Close) and First Daughter (Natalie Portman); a stuffy White House
scientist (Pierce Brosnan); the skirtchasing Presidential press secretary
(Martin Short); a ditzy fashion reporter (Sarah Jessica Parker); her vain
reporter boyfriend (Michael J. Fox); a Kansas teen (Lukas Haas) and his
grandmother (Sylvia Sidney); an alcoholic Vegas casino owner (Nicholson
again); his New Agey wife (Annette Bening); an
ex-boxer-turned-costumed-Vegas-casino-attraction (Jim Brown); his estranged
wife (Pam Grier); a rude gambler (Danny DeVito); and, yes, Tom Jones himself.
        With so many characters on the canvas, the Burton and screenwriter
Jonathan Gems understandably take a while to establish them and get the
picture going.  But after all the setup, it is quite disappointing that a
number of the characters do not have the most satisfying of payoffs
(Nicholson's casino owner in particular).  But unlike a certain alien
invasion picture that came out in the summer, all of these original, wacky
characters do make their distinct impression; none blend into a forgettable
blob.  And unlike that nameless blockbuster, even the aliens are allowed to
show some personality--the sight of them vaporizing buildings and people
with maniacal gusto while saying "Don't run!  We are your friends!" says it
all.  It's that quirky Burton mix of camp and macabre humor that makes Mars
Attacks! so much fun; ironically, that's also what will probably end up
hurting the film at the box office, like it did Ed Wood.  The imagination
and wit behind oddly clever way the humans end up getting the better of the
Martians will likely be lost on most mainstream moviegoers; in fact, most
people would probably call it a letdown.
        What will not be lost on mainstream viewers, however, is the
impressive visual effects of the piece.  The diminutive green Martians with
enlarged brains are  certainly a sight to behold, and the massive
destruction they cause is all done very convincingly.  The most brilliant
touch is how the effects, as elaborate and expensive as they are, do not
betray the look and feel of, say, a Plan 9 from Outer Space.  The flying
saucers don't have any visible strings holding them up, but they do
resemble, as Parker's character puts it, "flying hubcaps."  When people are
vaporized, we see their flesh and other entrails dissolve into the air, but
their whole skeletons are left behind--in either green or red, no less.
Martian brains explode but not without spurting green sludge.  Some crucial
effects involving Parker and Brosnan could not have been accomplished in the
1950s, but the idea behind them is something you would see in a movie from
that time, albeit done with a straight face.  Burton also doesn't resist the
use of that staple of Ed Wood movies, stock footage.  This attention to
detail makes Mars Attacks!, its satiric qualities notwithstanding, a knowing
and loving tribute to those cheesy B-movies.
        After the phenomenal success of Independence Day, I am not so sure
that Mars Attacks! will be able to find an audience even half the size of
that film's.  It's not that the films are too similar, far from it; it's
just that the majority of moviegoers, looking for something straightforward
like an ID4, won't quite "get" the unconventional Mars.  But anyone who is
willing and able to buy into the film's eccentricities is sure to enjoy Mars
Attacks!.
__________________________________________________________

Michael Dequina
[email-masked]
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