Metascore
34 out of 100

Generally unfavorable - based on 27 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 27
  2. Negative: 11 out of 27
  1. 75
    To like that kind of story is to like this kind of movie.
  2. I loved this movie. Or perhaps I should say the 15-year-old boy in me -- the dreamy, disaffected misfit with his head in the stars and a stack of Bantam sci-fi paperbacks as his sole defense against small-town boredom -- loved it.
  3. Reviewed by: Greg Burk
    60
    A fun movie. Not scary-fun. If you're a male over 10 years old, that should be enough.
  4. Reviewed by: Marc Caro
    50
    The slogan for Red Planet could be "In space no one can hear you yawn."
  5. 50
    It does boast loads of cool gadgetry and some impressive special effects. It's not much, but at least the movie always gives you something to look at.
  6. It stars the striking Moss, that fierce beauty from "The Matrix," as the sternest, sexiest babe in space since Sigourney Weaver's Lieutenant Ripley.
  7. Watching the movie, it's hard to imagine why anyone would dream of going back there.
  8. Fails to generate the elementary visceral thrills we've come to expect from science-fiction thrillers, let alone a compelling human drama.
  9. When it comes to special effects, the filmmakers have spared no expense. But when it comes to the story, audiences have been shortchanged.
  10. Reviewed by: Frank Lovece
    40
    Overblown, ridiculously contrived drive-in flick.
  11. 40
    Isn't particularly offensive, except in its total mediocrity.
  12. Visit Red Planet, and you'll boldly go where everyone has gone before.
  13. Reviewed by: Robert Horton
    40
    Moss -- in her first big role since "The Matrix" -- is the main reason to see Red Planet, a badly written and visually scenic space opus.
  14. 38
    The characters aren't convincingly written, rarely if ever behave like believable humans, and consequently don't matter to us in the least.
  15. Isn't as bad as the year's first abysmal Martian movie, "Mission to Mars," but it's pretty close.
  16. 38
    You can always judge a sci-fi thriller by its aliens. What does Planet offer -- Space roaches.
  17. 30
    A pale, patchy amalgam of the year's two unfairly reviled interplanetary adventures, "Supernova" and "Mission to Mars," the lunkheaded Red Planet distinguishes itself with a touching pretense of scientific veracity.
  18. A leaden, skimpily plotted space-age Outward Bound adventure with vague allegorical aspirations that remain entirely unrealized.
  19. I don't know the actual budget of this adventure yarn, but it feels like a middle-range effort whose heart is with the bargain-basement offerings of yesteryear.
  20. Crash-lands as disastrously as the heroes and never quite recovers its wits.
  21. Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    25
    The question in Red Planet isn't whether there's any life on Mars, but whether there's any life in the film. The answer is no.
  22. Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    20
    As dull and arid as a hike through the desert.
  23. Pfarrer's screenplay feels older than the Martian hills.
  24. There still is no life on Mars. Red Planet is airless.
User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 17 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 8
  2. Negative: 3 out of 8
  1. This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. I'm writing because I absolutely loved this movie and cannot for the life of me understand why the user scores, at least, are not much higher. It has a fine cast, excellent production values, mostly credible science, an intriguing and suspenseful plot mixed with action that is not for its own sake, a theme of survival and accomplishment in a bleak universe that is very serious, and some credible romance at the end. Just wonderful. This is a classic, right up there with "The Fifth Element", watchable again and again over the years. I confess that there is a major credibility glitch at an important turn in the plot -- with a lot of equipment already on the ground, nobody saw to it that there was an oxygen detector to report that they weren't all going to die after all. They could have injected a word or two saying that their oxygen detectors were fried in the solar flare that caused their premature escape launch to the planet. But I don't care. I supplied that piece of information myself. As for the critics, always remember what a bunch of snobs they are, save for a few with eclectic tastes, notably here the great Roger Ebert (long may he liv). Anytime I see a great disparity between the user scores and the critics', I know that either Metacritic isn't counting the latter fairly (which often happens) or the users have seen the worth of a movie the critics were blind to. We should be grateful that a movie like this was made. I sure am. Full Review »
  2. Patrickb
    10
    Best Mars movie there is. Some unrealistic science facts.. yeah.. but also some part of it IS realistic and fun to watch, I especially like the ship design how they actually make an artificial intelligence and make it work with G-forces, oh well. Full Review »
  3. TM
    1
    A basic tenet of scifi flicks is that they should at least get the science right. Great ones take accurate science and extrapolate to create fantastic but not improbable results. This movie can't even bother to get the genetic code right (A,G,T,P???)or to figure out that insects aren't nematodes much less be creative about life and human existence might happen on Mars. Full Review »