You know, I love the whole sci-fi genre. One of my favorites. And, despite the current over-saturation of zombie oriented fare, I’m a fan of zombies, too. Well, of course The Walking Dead is fine. Of all the zombie stuff going on, that is still great. But we could do with a break otherwise. Unfortunately, The Last Days On Mars, despite a fine cast and production value, is little more than Zombies On Mars.
You know, I love the whole sci-fi genre. One of my favorites. And, despite the current over-saturation of zombie oriented fare, I’m a fan of zombies, too. Well, of course The Walking Dead is fine. Of all the zombie stuff going on, that is still great. But we could do with a break otherwise. Unfortunately, The Last Days On Mars, despite a fine cast and production value, is little more than Zombies On Mars.
A team of scientists on Mars, upon the last remaining days of their mission, discover a bacterial organism deep in the planets soil. Huzzah! The mission is a success! Oh, wait, that bacteria is dangerous, as it turns people into crazed, vicious flesh-eating lunatics. Now it’s a race against time to try to survive, and get off Mars before they all die. Think 28 Days Later on Mars. Think of almost any frenzied zombie movie and just put it on Mars.
It’s a real shame, too. The acting is solid. Liev Schreiber is the main protagonist, an astronaut with a blemish of potential space neuroses – kind of panic attacks – that make things a challenge for him on occasion. Elias Koteas is the stalwart, and sympathetic mission captain. Olivia williams is great as the somewhat bitchy but cool professional. Romola Garai is the compassionate hotty. And a number of good character people that just end up as crazed zombie types. Or zombie food.
Much of the problem is that they don’t really go into any great detail about what the bacteria is doing. They skim over the idea that it transforms people into some kind of creature that doesn’t need any assistance breathing on the surface of Mars. These things don’t need their helmets, they can just take them off and have fun. But there isn’t a lot of reason WHY the bacteria changes them. What is the purpose? Who knows. Let’s just make a crazy zombie movie on Mars. There isn’t much use of the unique location; it’s just same zombie stuff, different scenery. And frankly, couldn’t you have taken what is essentially an old premise, and done something more interesting with it? I’m pretty sure if writer Clive Dawson had taken another turn at the screenplay, something fresher could have come of it. It may be adapted from a short story, but it needed some changes.
The effects are fine. This is a smaller film, nothing involving vast epic scenes of CG space stuff. Most of this appears to be shot on stages, or some desert locations. A little digital tinting of the film and you’re magically on Mars. This really isn’t a horrible film, it just lacks a more original approach.
Near the end we are provided with some excitment; some tense and location specific moments. Then, we get a downbeat mfinal shot with a mere glimmer of possible continuation. But it’ll never happen here. The Last Days on Mars isn’t going to see any sequels, and we’re better for it.
I can only allow 2 kttenhands here. I would really have liked to see a more original use of the premise with more fleshed out reasoning. But it does show director Ruari Robinson is capable of doing the job, so it’s a decent resume’ piece for his skills at handling a studio film.
~ Neil T. Weakley, your average movie goer, not impressed with this one, but may I recommend Europa Report?