Sure, they can't all be gems. And great directors can mess up from time to time. And what I dislike, others might love. These excuses might have worked for Carpenter's "Escape from L.A.", but they sure don't for this stinky pile. Simply terrible. Aren't directors supposed to improve their craft over the years? Making progressively better movies? Not always, would be the lesson learned here.
John Carpenter certainly has what it takes to make a great horror/sci fi movie. "The Thing" proved that. He knows all about suspense, the unfolding of a story, the use of lighting, music and camera angles. Or he did. This movie had a small amount of suspense (though true suspense requires that we care about the characters, and I sure didn't), some fair set design (the mining town buildings and the train weren't bad), but that's it. "The Thing" had a compelling, original and believable story and a great cast, whereas the story of "Ghosts from Mars" was not even interesting, and the cast even less so. Not entirely the actors' fault (though Natasha Henstridge was really rotten -big surprise- and should probably stick to taking her clothes off. If you happen to be a fan of Natasha Henstridge as an artiste, I would recommend that you don't listen to the commentary of her and Carpenter on the DVD, as she comes off sounding like an insecure, self-obsessed twit). The real problems here begin and end with the story.
The problem (well, the main one) with the story is that there's nothing to it. Mars has been colonized and is almost completely terraformed. A scientist, played by Joanna Cassidy in a role that's a far cry from her "Bladerunner" days, mistakenly unleashes a horde of Martian ghosts, who then possess the inhabitants of a little mining town, perform some pretty graphic self piercing and scarification, apparently take some time out to produce a lot of spooky looking ornaments and knick-knacks, and then decapitate anyone not yet possessed. Some kind of police tactical squad, sent in to the mining town to pick up a prisoner (played by Ice Cube), arrives to find a ghost town. No pun intended. Honest. The police unit (Pam Grier in charge, Henstridge as her #2, Jason Statham as a newcomer to the unit - the only actor to leave this movie relatively stink-free, and Clea Du Vall and Liam Waite, two rookies) finds a few inmates in the town jail (including Cube and Cassidy), and then spends the rest of the movie teaming up with the prisoners as the ghost/zombie/martian/vampires (if they bite you, you become one of them) attack them.
Don't expect any twists and turns in the plot, or character development for that matter. Or realistic interplay between the characters. Or believability. Or horror. Or depth. This is strictly a 2D world that Carpenter has created. What there is a lot of gore, and an apocalyptic ending (Carpenter's trademark). What there isn't is anything that tells us this movie was made by John Carpenter, icon of the horror and horror/sci-fi genres. The only surprise in the movie was the incomprehensibly idiotic decision that Henstridge's character makes at the end. Well, there was one other surprise, and that's that the other characters went along with the decision. Oops, sorry, one more surprise; Ebert gave the movie 3 stars. Although, with his track record recently, perhaps that's not really that surprising.
John Carpenter certainly has what it takes to make a great horror/sci fi movie. "The Thing" proved that. He knows all about suspense, the unfolding of a story, the use of lighting, music and camera angles. Or he did. This movie had a small amount of suspense (though true suspense requires that we care about the characters, and I sure didn't), some fair set design (the mining town buildings and the train weren't bad), but that's it. "The Thing" had a compelling, original and believable story and a great cast, whereas the story of "Ghosts from Mars" was not even interesting, and the cast even less so. Not entirely the actors' fault (though Natasha Henstridge was really rotten -big surprise- and should probably stick to taking her clothes off. If you happen to be a fan of Natasha Henstridge as an artiste, I would recommend that you don't listen to the commentary of her and Carpenter on the DVD, as she comes off sounding like an insecure, self-obsessed twit). The real problems here begin and end with the story.
The problem (well, the main one) with the story is that there's nothing to it. Mars has been colonized and is almost completely terraformed. A scientist, played by Joanna Cassidy in a role that's a far cry from her "Bladerunner" days, mistakenly unleashes a horde of Martian ghosts, who then possess the inhabitants of a little mining town, perform some pretty graphic self piercing and scarification, apparently take some time out to produce a lot of spooky looking ornaments and knick-knacks, and then decapitate anyone not yet possessed. Some kind of police tactical squad, sent in to the mining town to pick up a prisoner (played by Ice Cube), arrives to find a ghost town. No pun intended. Honest. The police unit (Pam Grier in charge, Henstridge as her #2, Jason Statham as a newcomer to the unit - the only actor to leave this movie relatively stink-free, and Clea Du Vall and Liam Waite, two rookies) finds a few inmates in the town jail (including Cube and Cassidy), and then spends the rest of the movie teaming up with the prisoners as the ghost/zombie/martian/vampires (if they bite you, you become one of them) attack them.
Don't expect any twists and turns in the plot, or character development for that matter. Or realistic interplay between the characters. Or believability. Or horror. Or depth. This is strictly a 2D world that Carpenter has created. What there is a lot of gore, and an apocalyptic ending (Carpenter's trademark). What there isn't is anything that tells us this movie was made by John Carpenter, icon of the horror and horror/sci-fi genres. The only surprise in the movie was the incomprehensibly idiotic decision that Henstridge's character makes at the end. Well, there was one other surprise, and that's that the other characters went along with the decision. Oops, sorry, one more surprise; Ebert gave the movie 3 stars. Although, with his track record recently, perhaps that's not really that surprising.
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