Excluding Total Recall, movies that involve Mars seem to be generally quite rubbish. Will The Last Days On Mars buck the trend and turn out to be something enjoyable? Sadly, the answer is a resounding no.
Think Alien meets The Walking Dead and you’ll start to get the vibe about this movie. Nothing wrong with taking influence from those two amazing productions. Alien had people on the edge of their seats as it ramped up the tension scene after scene. And The Walking Dead brought incredible characters and great writing. Both productions also brought amazing antagonists to the table. Unfortunately though, The Last Days On Mars can’t hold a burnt out candle to either.
Starring Liev Schreiber, Elias Koteas and Romola Garai amongst an other wise unknown cast, it follows the story of a bunch of astronauts who succumb one by one to a mysterious infection after one of them discovers a macrobiotic organism, just before they are due to finish their 6 month stay on the planet. So, its not the most original story out there, but its disjointed and tedious writing just drags the thing out so much so that you will be looking at your watch on more than one occasion, let alone having a little sleep fo yourself. Its neither tense or frightening nor does it serve up little in the way of entertainment. The story is full of holes with many things going unexplained. Why is it everyones helmet seems to get a hole in it, like something broke in (or out)? Why is Liev Schreiber’s character having constant flashbacks? Is it to highlight that hes cluster phobic? Is it just to fatten up the running time? Either way you won’t care.
This is the Academy Award nominated Ruairi Robinson’s first major motion picture. The director started out as a modeller and animator and was nominated for an Oscar with 50 Percent Grey. So, visually he has got a keen eye. And it shows. The visual effects here are decent enough with the interiors of the base looking decent enough and the rover vehicles like really cool, and credit where its due to Irish based Screen Scene VFX. They’ve done a good job here, and while the set pieces are far and few between, what is there, is well done. The rest of the visuals are also decent enough with well designed space suits and the Martian landscape while barren and bleak, is also convincing. On a personal note, I do feel for Robinson. This is his first big break and despite being left down by a rubbish screenplay, he struggles to keep the pace going and it seems like the cast weren’t exactly too pushed to give much of a performance, especially Schreiber who is generally really good. Its only in the closing minutes that he puts in might be called a performance. Hopefully though, Robinson can move on to bigger and better things and forget about this travesty.
The movie tries far too hard to be another Alien. With problematic pacing and a poorly written script, The Last Days Of Mars is nothing but Martian mediocrity and is best avoided.
