癲狂院 Vixen Owl Cigar..。o○

Everything But the Kitchen Sink...


Red Can Be Scary...
After watching the suck-fest Mission 2 Mars earlier this year, I wasn't expecting much from Red Planet , but what I got was an exciting action flick with some pretty convincing characters.
Yeah, I said it.
I this movie.
People who haven't seen it, and maybe a few people who have seen it may think they're supposed to hate this movie based on that other Mars movie that came out this year.
I strongly advise that you drop that notion and take the film for what it is.

First, let me lay down the plot for you: It's the near future, and humans have severely helped to deplete Earth's O-Zone layer and natural resources.
So humans look to Mars and launch probes carrying payloads of algae in the hopes that the algae will grow and thus give off oxygen, thereby terraforming the planet to support human life.
Well, the plan works, and all looks good until the oxygen level drops mysteriously, and that's when they decide to send a team of scientists to find out what happened, which is where the movie begins.

Carrie-Anne Moss's character leads the team with actors Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Benjamin Bratt, Simon Baker, and Terrance Stamp under her command.
Also along for the trip is an artificial robot called A.M.E.E (sorry, the meaning of the initials escapes me ), who is basically a 'navigator ' that is to help the team find stuff on the planet.
She has this cool helicopter camera thing that comes out of her back and helps to scout the land.
But besides 'navigator ' mode, AMEE has a 'military ' mode that- well, I don't want to give too much away.
And on that note, without giving much of the movie away, I will say that once their ship gets there it's hit by a solar flair that damages ships systems and forces Moss to stay on board to conduct repairs while the other five go down to the planet.
Obviously some sexual tension is built up between her and Kilmer before they get there (hell, she's the only woman onboard, and seeing her naked in the shower sure helped ).

While trying to land, the team is forced to jettison their landing gear (containing AMEE ) and one of the crew members is a goner right from the get go.
From the previews you can extrapolate that AMEE goes haywire and starts using her military mode to hunt and destroy the other team members, which adds a unique sense of excitement into the mix.
Also, the team discovers they can breathe on Mars, but I will not reveal the answer to that conundrum.

【Val Kilmer】Red Planet【Carrie-Anne Moss】
"HELLO? We're the guys on Mars!!"
I read Red Planet last year and was quite pleased with the hard science fiction technology throughout it, no more soft sci-fi fantasy bologna, but strong characters, harsh reality scenerios and fantastic plot line.
So when the movie was released, I avoided seeing it at the theaters. (I hate having a good book torn apart in a film )

I was pleased, point blank.
The film stuck with the books strong lines, rarely did it extend outwards. (of course, it didn't dig into some of the characters, but that is standard play with all films )
The heavy conflict between characters kept me on edge, and the sudden atmospheric changes had me chewing a fingernail.
As I watched the characters struggle to survive on the harsh red planet, I refused to get up and move from my seat.
The first 10 minutes of the film is a bit slow.
A dragging on bringing the viewer into the concept of certain characters, but do not fast forward, there might just be something important there to listen to.

Basically what the movie is about:
Earth is dying.. It is now the year 2025 and mankind is trying to find a new home to live on.. For the past 20 years, they have been putting certain types of "oxygen plant life" on Mars so that eventually humans could breath on it.. But something happened, and a group of "astronaunts" are send to Mars to discover the problem.....

What this group didn't know is that a problem would happen to them and their ship.
Eventually one person is left on the ship that "just might not be able to work ", and the rest of the crew is aborted down to the planet's surface.
Soon all of them are struggling to survive on a distant planet that holds unspeakable terrors for them, and not the terrors of "monsters " as we know it.

Red Planet reminds me a little of Pitch Black, which was also released last year.
They're both strong sci-fi movies with mod-notch efxs set on a planet with characters trying to get from A to B while being chased by something and avoiding the physical dangers of the planet they're on.
Red Planet wasn't perfect, but in the right mindset turned out to be a gr8 movie that just gets better every time I think about what I watched, which has been a very rare phenomenon with the overall movies I've seen this year, not to mention sci-fi films period.
I highly appreciate that they kept the woman (Captain) as a strong character.
It has been a long time since I seen a woman in a sci-fi thriller be the strongest role player, at least not since Aliens.
For a gr8 conflicting movie that will keep you in suspense till the very end, I recommend seeing the Red Planet .