Ghosts of Mars - Wonder if we’ll ever know...

First off, I’d like to point out that I’m quite a die-hard John Carpenter fan, so I’ll watch pretty much anything he does.  I first saw ‘Ghosts of Mars’ back when it was released in 2001 and loved it.  Then bought it on DVD and continued to watch it a few times since.  However, now, in 2016, not having seen in for a while I decided to give it another go.  Sadly, I was actually quite disappointed.

It’s fair to say that it wasn’t a hit with fans or critics on its release and – maybe – I’m starting to see what they saw then.  It hasn’t really aged well.  First of all we’re told in a section of opening text that Mars is a ‘Matriarchal’ society.  Why?  We don’t know.  It’s an interesting concept of the future, but one that’s then abandoned.  Perhaps the biggest flaw is the beginning, in that the film chooses to start the film at the end and basically give you one huge spoiler from the start as to what happens in the end.  This whole story-telling mechanic is pointless and ruins any real tension.

A team of space police officers go to Mars to escort a known prisoner back to Earth for trial.  Only, when they arrive, they find the Mars colony deserted and have some pretty nasty surprises in store for them.  Natasha (the woman from Species) is in the lead and she does her best and being hard-as-nails, while also flawed due to a futuristic drug addiction, but the script is hardly dynamite.  Jason Statham has his first major Hollywood break here and is about the one light that still shines in this film.  Ice Cube is supposed to be the male lead, but comes across as bored, wooden and even a little on the overweight side.  Rumour has it that Statham auditioned for Cube’s role, but wasn’t a big enough star at the time.  If only what could have been...

When the action kicks off between those nasty dark forces on the red planet and our band of (mainly disposable) heroes, it’s actually quite fun.  This is probably the bit that stuck with me.  The set pieces are fun, but it’s the direction which lets it down – amazingly when you consider how good Carpenter normally is.  I’ve already mentioned that the film is one big story told by one person all the way through.  Then every ten minutes or so, the action cuts off and reminds us that we’re witnessing a retelling.  This is annoying and breaks the pace, but also we have numerous flashbacks from other characters.  Sometimes a scene will be repeated literally minutes later from someone else’s point of view.  This just feels awkward and totally unnecessary.  Then, in one case we’re even treated to a flashback within a flashback within the main story (which is technically also a flashback!).

Ghosts of Mars could have been at least a cult classic, however its flaws which even I overlooked are now becoming very apparent.  I seem to remember at the time I rated this film 8/10 on one internet site.  Now, definitely a generous 7.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that