I’m sure it was suppose to be scary
Early in the month I reported that The Haunting of Molly Hartley was the worst film that i had ever seen. Well, John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars is a very solid second. Let me just say, I like John Carpenter. I’m a huge fan of his movies (The Thing and Escape From New York are two of my favorites). With that said, Ghosts of Mars is just plain awful. It makes no sense, it has so many logical flaws that it’s just quite sad, it makes me think that Carpenter has lost his magic. Before I get into it, let me catch you up on the story.
Lt. Melanie Ballard is the sole survivor of a team of soldiers who have gone to find out what is wrong with a mining colony on Mars. She tells a story of ‘terror’ that says there are more things happening at the colony than what they thought. The ghosts of mars have pretty much attacked the colony and have taken over the body of miners, turning them into killing machines.
That is pretty much the story. I have tried to figure out more to tell you, but that’s really it. First, the story issues. The first 30 minutes of the film is a great build. It sets up a creepy story that intrigues the viewer. From that point on, the movie just completely craps out. The ghosts of mars (who are apparently aliens of the planet when it was thriving) posses the body of the miners. Once those people are killed, the ghost leaves the body and goes searching for another. The ghosts are apparently mindless warriors who just kill-kill-kill! There is no purpose to them, other than killing. The ghosts are led by Marlyn Manson (not really) who spends the majority of time shouting gibberish and killing. That’s the story, the soldiers must survive, that’s it.
Now, for the illogical issues of the film. First, why would you want to go back to the town once you’re out of it? Why?! No reason. Ballard leads her people out of the town, but feels compelled to get rid of the town by herself. In such a technologically advanced world, why would one person think they have to risk their life to go into a firestorm of killing when they could probably just ask the military to go in and take care of the issue. It’s Mars, the towns are very far away from each other, she should have plenty of time. The second illogical issue here is, if you have possessed people jailed (and the ghosts can’t leave their bodies until the body is dead), why would you kill the people? It just causes the ghosts to possess other people. In fact, it’s a non-stop carousel of possession if you murder a group of them.
This movie had too many problems, too many illogical flaws in the story, it just wasn’t good.
Not feeling Blu
As beautiful as this movie is on Blu-ray, and it is beautiful, it just seems like a waste. Admire the picture and presentation, please enjoy the audio, because it’s very good (it’s an action film, so expect nothing less). It’s really too bad that the story wasn’t good at all because the rest of the film looks unreal in HD (and it sounds unreal).
As for features, they are sparse:
– Director and Natasha Henstridge Commentary
– Video Diary: Red Desert Nights
– Featurettes: “The Music Behind the Movie”
– Special Effects (SFX) Deconstructions
