Red Planet

Here comes a billion dollar campfire. At least it's good for something.

The second of the Mars based box office bombs released in 2000, Red Planet is maybe - just maybe - worth a revisit by some who were irritated by it back on first viewing. Once knowing that this is not going to be some action packed alien movie, that it's a survivalist drama that tips its hat to 1950s sci-fi schlock, that cares about its characters, then there's a decent popcorner experience to be had here.

This is not to say it's a genius entry in the sci-fi pantheon, because it's not, the same problems still exist; Terence Stamp is woefully under used (seriously they could have got any low paid character actor to play his role), some things either don't make sen...

Red Planet has so much going on, and it doesn't have control of any of it. Not a single actor fits their character, except possibly Carrie-Ann Moss, who spends basically the entire runtime too benched to really count as a character in 99% of the story anyway.

Final rating: - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product.