Red Planet

Red Planet is a science-fiction film about the first manned mission to Mars a few decades from now. If you've seen Mission To Mars and didn't like it, don't worry - this film is much better. It may not have quite as many cool special effects, but it has a good story and more believable characters. And what effects it has are great too. The Earth has been polluted so badly that humanity must find another world to colonise or face eventual extinction. According to the story, there are already no frogs left alive on Earth, because frogs absorb pollution through their skins so easily. The beginning of the film is narrated by Commander Bowman, played by Carrie-Ann Moss. She tells us how previous Mars missions sent special algae to the red planet in order to begin creating an atmosphere, and how a supply station called HAB was constructed on the Martian surface. Now, the algae seems to have mysteriously disappeared, and the rest of the film is about the mission that is sent to find out what has happened to it.

The mission crew is the usual motley bunch comprising the commander herself, and five men - Gallagher, played by Val Kilmer, Burchenal (Tom Sizemore), Santen (Benjamin Bratt), Pettengil (Simon Baker) and Chantilas (Terence Stamp), who provides a little philosophical relief from all the science. Also on board is the obligatory artificial life-form, this time in the form of a fantastic robot called AMEE, which turns into a strong and dangerous adversary later on.

When the ship arrives at Mars, it passes through a gamma-ray storm which takes out much of the equipment, and for reasons that are explained, means that only the men can land on the planet, and Bowman has to stay behind. What the men discover when they land unfolds slowly on screen, and I'll leave it up to you to discover it with them. Red Planet is a great film and I really enjoyed it, although one little detail seems to have escaped the attention of the film-makers. I don't really believe that they could build a two-way radio out of an old modem, and that Houston would be able to detect it back on Earth, and that later it would instantly interface to an old Russian landing module. But hey, this is science fiction, and as science fiction films go, it's one of the best.