maybe this mission should have been scrubbed mission to mars a film review by michael redman copyright 2000 by michael redman there's a world of difference between artists and technicians . the artist has a vision to create something new . he may not do it well , it might be sloppy , but it's something you've never seen before . a good technician can make it look good , but without direction from his own inner artist or someone else , it's going to be just a xerox . obviously successful films need both skills . brian de palma is a masterful technician . he's spent his career copying others , most notably hitchcock . he usually knows exactly what to do to make a scene work , but only because he has learned it by rote . aside from rare flashes of originality , his films are often soul-dead . in de palma's latest , he turns his attention to stanley kubrick . to tell the truth , i enjoyed portions of this movie , but i liked it a lot better over 30 years ago when it was called " 2001 " . i enjoyed it even more when it was titled " close encounters " . nasa has set its sights for mars . when the first crew meets with disaster , a rescue mission is sent to the red planet . they don't do so well either , but eventually meet up the lone surviving astronaut-gone-rasta and solve the mysteries of the universe . <NEG> and it's all so boring . there are so many scenes that just don't work , it's difficult to begin </NEG> . when the first crew is a few feet away from a raging massive upside-down martian tornado ( which looks remarkably like a sandworm from " dune " ) destroying everything in its path , they just hang out watching . error . the most interesting character ( and that's not saying much ) is killed off . error . <NEG> the alien is laughable </NEG> . error . the rest of the characters are <NEG> the dullest people imaginable </NEG> . error . there's some nice eyecandy . the face on mars , which turns out to be a giant metal thai buddha head , looks cool . a three-dimensional holographic planetarium is more fun to watch than anything at disney world . maneuvering in space suits outside the ship seems realistic . but there's so much more that feels as if we've been there before . from " 2001 " , there's the rotating space station , the blinding white room . >from " close encounters " , they solve a sound puzzle and play it to the aliens . the list goes on . the actors <NEG> are mostly mobile wooden statues </NEG> . even gary sinise and tim robbins can't muster enough emotion to convince us they are breathing . <NEG> no one seems to care about anything that happens . you won't either . the absolutely worst sin </NEG> is the blatant product placement as dr . pepper , with a 20 foot tall logo , saves the day . they should save the commercials for those insipid bits before the film .
