i'm not quite sure what to say about mars attacks ! , which is obviously the work of a deranged genius . when tim burton's twisted alien invasion comedy really works , it's breathtaking and hilarious in equal measure . and when it doesn't work , it's just dull . i'm not even sure it works more often than it doesn't , but where it counts -- that is , when this gleefully evil invading force from the red planet gets down to the business of blasting us to kingdom come -- mars attacks ! is brilliant . mars attacks ! is based on a rather unsavory series of trading cards released by topps in the 1950s , and it takes its cues from the same sources as this summer's independence day -- old alien invasion flicks , disaster movies , and big-budget special effects extravaganzas . but unlike independence day , which was a painfully middle-of-the-road appeal to the hearts , minds and wallets of america , mars attacks ! has a fully developed and very personal sense of wonder about it . the big difference is that while independence day celebrated the resilience of human beings , mars attacks ! portrays us as the greedy and hapless schmucks that we are . the title sequence is just splendid -- an incredible swarm of flying saucers rises out of the canals of the red planet and then storms earthward through the solar system in formation . the spinning metal saucers are dead ringers for the invading forces of movies past , and their first appearance on the big screen in combination with danny elfman's thundering , theremin-driven score is absolutely jaw-dropping . it's so overwhelming that , i swear to you , i had trouble breathing . the movie lays low for the next 40 minutes . we get a glimpse of the alien leader , resplendent in a purple-sequined cape , when a television message is broadcast to the people of the world -- naturally , the only way to communicate with earthlings is to preempt our regularly scheduled programming . but mostly , the first act is spent developing characters , setting up mildly comic situations , and drawing a quirky but dishearteningly drab picture of america according to tim burton . it's a good thing that the most compelling personality in the movie belongs to the aliens , because burton's just not interested in making more than caricatures out of his human stars . anyone who comes to mars attacks ! expecting to see a lot of one favorite actor is bound to be disappointed -- with few exceptions , these characters are dispatched as the film progresses . jack nicholson is a lot of fun as the president of the united states but fizzles as a sleazy las vegas hotel developer . rod steiger does an amusing enough take on dr . strangelove's buck turgidson , glenn close brings some star power to the role of the first lady , and martin short is a presidential aide who meets the martians in the white house's " kennedy room , " a secluded nook where he unwittingly tries to seduce an alien dressed up as a big-haired , pointy-breasted sexpot ( lisa marie , the burton flame who played vampira in ed wood ) -- in an earlier scene , it's made clear that the aliens studied human sexuality in the pages of an old issue of playboy . sarah jessica parker hosts her own tv show and michael j . fox is her newsman husband . the octogenarian sylvia sidney has a funny part as the old woman who cackles , " they blew up congress ! " and plays a decisive role in the defeat of the alien menace . jim brown and tom jones are the film's vegas-based heroes , and director barbet schroeder ( reversal of fortune ) has a funny cameo as the unfortunate french president . also on hand and underutilized are annette bening , pierce brosnan , pam grier , lukas haas and natalie portman ( the latter two also show up in woody allen's everyone says i love you ) . the real stars , of course , are the computer-generated martians , and they're fantastic . with bare brains glistening atop their grinning skull-faces , round egg-eyes with red pupils darting this way and that , these animated invaders are malevolence incarnate -- joe dante's gremlins are the closest equivalent in recent memory , but burton's little monsters are more inventive . the film's raison d'etre are the scenes of crimes against mankind -- the most famous monuments of the world crumble under the alien assault , easter island is turned into a bowling alley , and the nasty little buggers perform hideous medical experiments on captured humans . the sheer level of mayhem is staggering , especially when the aliens make their first attack , blasting human beings into iridescent skeletons . parents are urged to pay special attention to the pg-13 rating -- it's earned . the special effects vary from charming to astonishing to deliciously cheesy , and at least a couple of shots of mass destruction seem to have been engineered specifically in response to independence day , although mars attacks ! was in production long before that film's release . cinematographer peter suschitzky , who makes the most of wynn thomas's wildly imaginative production design ( thomas helped define the spike lee style ) , actually took time off from his mars attacks ! regimen to shoot crash for david cronenberg . cronenberg's movie will almost certainly be more somber -- it won't be released in the u . s . until early next year -- but mars attacks ! is surely a similarly elegant nightmare . this is not a nice movie . ( and which studio executive was duped into giving burton $70 million to make it ? ) by setting the film's final scenes in the nearly empty , holocaust-ravaged america that independence day conveniently avoided , burton's invasion epic suggests that the world we've got may not be worth saving until many of the people on it are dead . the victims of his invasion are naive , greedy , or disastrously self-absorbed -- and a good thing , too , since the movie's wicked charm is dependent on our ability to take this invasion partly as a wish-fulfillment fantasy . the surviving cast members are the innocents and the entertainers , who triumph by determining that the alien invaders -- the ultimate elitists -- are actually susceptible to the kitschiest strains of american pop culture . ultimately , this messy masterpiece is the year's funniest comedy and a weird , winking affirmation of the power of the people .
