Last Days on Mars - Not bad, but not that memorable

There’s a strange myth going around Hollywood that any film with ‘Mars’ in the title (or primarily connected with Mars) fails to do well at the Box Office, i.e. Mars Needs Moms, Red Planet, John Carter of Mars and Ghosts of Mars (even though Ghosts of Mars happens to be a ‘guilty pleasure’ film of mine!).  Maybe it’s just coincidence, or maybe the rumour is true, but ‘Last Days on Mars’ is hardly going to be remembered as a classic piece of Hollywood cinema (and probably not even a cult favourite).

After having watched it, I have to say that I didn’t hate it.  However, I felt I better write a review on it pretty quickly, as I doubt it’s going to stay in my mind for much more than a week.  It’s about a team of astronauts (yes, camped out on the red planet) who are days away from completing their mission when something bad happens.  I won’t go into too much detail for fear of spoiling what’s to come, but let’s just say our budding group of ‘Major Toms’ start dropping like flies, courtesy of something nasty.

So, one by one the cast is whittled down until... well, you have to watch it to take a guess at the old ‘who lives vs who dies’ scenario.  But, once you’ve met all the characters, you’ll have a pretty solid idea at who’s going to be left standing in the final act.  Liev Schreiber is a solid enough leading man, but hardly embodies any ‘A-list’ qualities that will really elevate him to the next acting level.  Much of the supporting cast are British – you have ‘Scardy-Brit,’ Stuck-up Brit,’ ‘Needy-Brit’ and so on.

Basically, if you come across ‘Last Days on Mars’ late at night and you’re in the mood for a little ‘sci-fi/horror’ you may just stick with it.  It’s not so bad, but just nothing particularly new either.  You need not go out of your way to seek this one out.

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights