Ghosts of Mars is an ensemble of "almost there" genres. It's barely a horror film, there's very little action, and the humor is completely dry. It's almost impossible to determine exactly what John Carpenter intended to do with this movie. It's one confusing emotion after another.
The film has a very weak and almost non-existant plot to begin with. It's 2176 A.D. and humans have inhabited the planet Mars. Lt. Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge) is on a mission to bring back a prisoner, James "Desolation" Williams (Ice Cube), from a mining camp called Shining Canyon. When Ballard's team arrives at the camp though, they soon learn that a strange and unseen force has taken over the community. Carpenter tells the story through one flashback after another, which gives away a majority of the picture right from the start, for you see immediately who survives and who doesn't. Then there's a flashback in a flashback, and flashback within that.
It would be one thing to be a badly done film but parody itself. It's another thing to have a badly done film, with just the worst dialogue with it. With characters such as Ice Cube's and Jason Statham's, so much more potential could have been put in. The weak, one liner jokes are the toppings of an already disturbed picture.
With a multitude of obviously forced and throw-together elements, Ghosts of Mars becomes one of the biggest disappointments of last summer. It's not even going to be one of Carpenter's earlier cheesy bad Friday-night-video-rental. It's unfortunately just cheesy and bad.
The film has a very weak and almost non-existant plot to begin with. It's 2176 A.D. and humans have inhabited the planet Mars. Lt. Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge) is on a mission to bring back a prisoner, James "Desolation" Williams (Ice Cube), from a mining camp called Shining Canyon. When Ballard's team arrives at the camp though, they soon learn that a strange and unseen force has taken over the community. Carpenter tells the story through one flashback after another, which gives away a majority of the picture right from the start, for you see immediately who survives and who doesn't. Then there's a flashback in a flashback, and flashback within that.
It would be one thing to be a badly done film but parody itself. It's another thing to have a badly done film, with just the worst dialogue with it. With characters such as Ice Cube's and Jason Statham's, so much more potential could have been put in. The weak, one liner jokes are the toppings of an already disturbed picture.
With a multitude of obviously forced and throw-together elements, Ghosts of Mars becomes one of the biggest disappointments of last summer. It's not even going to be one of Carpenter's earlier cheesy bad Friday-night-video-rental. It's unfortunately just cheesy and bad.