As a teenager, I was overly obsessed with science fiction films. I discovered the Star Wars films while I was in middle school and there was no turning back. I soon found myself watching every Star Trek property I could get my hands on after my Star Wars fix ran dry. I would watch anything science fiction related, from Lost in Space to Battlestar Galactica. When I was in high school, I vaguely remember seeing previews for the film “John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars” and wanting to see it. I think the concept of a Mars related action movie sounded fun. Still, until I was provided a review copy from Mill Creek Entertainment, I had not had the chance to see the movie up until this week.
The film follows Lt. Melanie Ballard and her team as they get assigned to transport James 'Desolation' Williams from a mining colony on Mars. ‘Desolation’ Williams was accused of killing a group of people but everything isn’t what it seems. While searching through the mines Williams is locked in, Ballard and her team find out that everyone is missing. As it turns out, the ancient ghosts of the Martians who lived on the planet before us had possessed everyone in the mining colony and they start attacking everyone. To survive, Ballard and her squadron must join forces with ‘Desolation’ Williams as they do their best to fight back against the ghosts of Mars.
After watching this movie, I couldn’t help but feel like this film just didn’t click with me. So much of the movie just felt off. Perhaps it’s because a lot of the things going on behind the scenes were off. Yes, I had to do research after watching this because I was trying to piece together what went wrong with this movie only because John Carpenter is usually a fairly solid filmmaker. As it turns out, much of the problem with the film lies outside of Carpenter’s control.
I learned quickly something that made a lot of sense, “John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars” started it’s life out as “Escape from Mars”, a third Snake Plissken film. This makes a lot of sense considering this film feels a little as if it assumed we already knew the lead character. To some degree, we should have. I guess after “Escape from L.A.” flopped, this potential sequel had to be reworked.
John Carpenter initially wanted Jason Statham to play the lead role of ‘Desolation’ Williams but the studio wanted a box office draw in the lead role so Statham was demoted to main supporting cast. The studio insisted Ice Cube get the lead part. I guess they were big N.W.A fans because Ice Cube wasn’t exactly a huge box office draw. I can see a meeting with the executives there: “It’s hot on Mars, right? Maybe we need to cool it off with a little...Ice Cube.” (A round of applause follows). Natasha Henstridge of “Species” fame plays Lt. Melanie Ballard after Courtney Love had to drop out. Joanna Cassidy from “Blade Runner” has a supporting role but I found her distracting because in this movie, she reminded me of Jane Lynch. Lastly, Robert Carradine shows up in the movie and basically does nothing,
“John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars” is the film that caused the master of horror to leave Hollywood and I don’t blame him. All the studio interference would drive any filmmaker crazy. Despite the title, I have a feeling Carpenter called very few of the shots in the creative process. This makes the film feel like a traditional John Carpenter film but lacks the suspense and humor of most of his other movies.
The action is choreographed awkward and slow. The fights don’t flow in a natural way and feel very staged. Overall, the film just feels messy and rushed and the sequel bait at the end seems a bit humorous in hindsight. Still, it’s a freaking John Carpenter film and he can make anything watchable. Added to his skills behind the lens, Carpenter also provides a killer score. It’s just sad seeing a film that had so much potential turn out so average.
Grade: C
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