Martians Have Arrived
It’s not often you get a film with so many stars. The list includes Jack Nicholson, Martin Short, Michael J. Fox, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Sarah Jessica Parker, Danny DeVito, Pierce Brosnan, Rod Steiger, Natalie Portman, and Pam Grier. Granted, some of these roles are small, but imagine trying to put that cast together today — the budget would be massive.
Anyway, Jack Nicholson stars as the US President who must deal with an impending Martian invasion. During the opening credits, hundreds of martian flying saucers make their approach on Earth. For much of the film, it isn’t certain if they are friendly or not, but it is known that they are a highly advanced species. Despite Pierce Brosnan’s character, Professor Donald Kessler, predicting the Martian’s tameness, the Martians do end up attacking anything and everything on Earth in an attempt to take over the planet. The military seems helpless to stop them and the President is driven further and further away from the danger while citizens on the surface face the wrath of blowtorches and ray guns.
Tim Burton strikes a good balance between sci-fi and comedy in Mars Attacks! with some action and a touch of suspense to boot. Danny Elfman takes care of the soundtrack in another Burton-Elfman tag team, and it’s perfectly suitable as well. Overall, it’s a fun movie for a Saturday afternoon, although not one I see myself watching repeatedly.
On Blu-ray
Mars Attacks! on Blu-ray looks excellent. I was impressed with the vibrant image quality that merges modern day (generally boring) scenery with the colorful sci-fi appearance of the Martians and their technology. Like most Tim Burton movies, Mars Attacks! is a visual feast for the eyes. A DTS-HD 5.1 audio track supplements the excellent video quality to make for an overall very impressive presentation.
Surprisingly, this particular Warner release has no extra features to speak of. There are no trailers or audio commentaries, much less anything else, which is too bad. With so many stars in this film, you would think at least one of them would have something to offer for this Blu-ray release, but that’s just not the case here.
With that, lets get to the summary..
