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Mission to Mars
Buena Vista Pictures


6.8

based on 36 reviews
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based on 16 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG for sci-fi violence and mild language.

Starring Gary Sinise, Don Cheadle, Connie Nielson, Jerry O'Connell, Kim Delaney, and Tim Robbins

The extraordinary story of the astronauts of the Mars Recovery Mission, the nearly insurmountable dangers that confront the heroic crew on their journey through space, and the amazing discovery they make when they finally reach Mars. (Touchstone Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Sci-fi
WRITTEN BY:	Graham Yost Jim Thomas (also story) John Thomas (also story) Lowell Cannon (story)
DIRECTED BY:	Brian De Palma
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: September 12, 2000 Video: September 12, 2000 Theatrical: March 10, 2000
RUNNING TIME:	113 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

One of the most gorgeous science-fiction movies ever - and probably also one of the most realistic in detail and scientific extrapolation

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Earthlings beware: The dialogue and characters have less weight than bodies freed from gravity's grip.

Time Richard Corliss

This isn't "2001," by a long shot, but for 2000, it'll do nicely.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Here and there an inspired shot makes the film come alive, and at least three of its sequences had me positioned well on the edge of my seat.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

There are times when it moves into the guilty pleasure zone.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

I can't recommend Mission to Mars.

Philadelphia Inquirer Gary Thompson

It's low-energy, and it's also depressing to know that people are still listening to Van Halen 20 years from now.

Slate David Edelstein

He does gorgeous work, but in Mission to Mars he's only going through the motions.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Plot-wise, this is strictly paint-by-numbers stuff.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The picture is equally long on eye-dazzling camera work and New Age sentimentality.

USA Today Mike Clark

You can feel the movie going wrong in the first scene.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Trying to make sense of this shaggy dog story is like climbing a mountain with glass-smooth sides and quarter-inch toeholds.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

It's a wonderful piece of filmmaking, but once any mouth is opened the magic is immediately tarnished.

Film.com Robert Horton

For a good 40 minutes or so in the middle of this movie, De Palma is in his element.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Dazzling to look at but dreadful to listen to, the film is a tug-of-war of coolness and dreck.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

In the presence of profound questions, the filmmaker goes profoundly shallow.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

There doesn't seem to be an original moment in the entire movie, and the score is so repetitive that it could have been downloaded directly from EnnioMorricone.com.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The script is heavy on platitudes about friendship, but since there isn't a single fully fleshed character in sight, who cares?

Film.com Tom Keogh

All such good intentions collapse by the third act, when Mission to Mars becomes a tediously late pastiche of chimerical nonsense from the early 1980s.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Halfway through, De Palma literally explodes his narrative to orchestrate a superb deep-space float-opera replete with runaway modules, high-tech lassos, dramatic self-sacrifice, and, in the most surprising maneuver, a montage-driven modicum of actual suspense.

Newsweek David Ansen

It's a gorgeous bad movie, the folly of a great visual stylist.

Film.com John Hartl

The final scenes, which suggest an earnest science lesson presented by a weepy extraterrestrial in an alien planetarium, play like the work of an amateur filmmaker.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A $100 million production of a 10-cent script, is so clunkily written, so bereft of any engaging ideas or emotions, you'd think De Palma would have sneered at it on first reading and passed

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

There are a few pretty good design effects en route, but not enough to compensate for all the embarrassments.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

One can only assume all the, ah, good stuff landed on the cutting-room floor, because it sure as hell didn't make it to Mars.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

What DePalma has never made is a dull movie. Until now.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

It features well-below-par writing, acting, direction, special effects and music, while oozing a nauseating New Age sentimentality that undermines any tension in the underlying story.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

Something so sappy, no one would believe me if I told them. It has to be seen to be disbelieved.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

De Palma's film is a mess from its anxious start all the way through to its new-agey end, relying heavily on cribs from Kubrick and Cameron and even the recent "Apollo 13."

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

I'm not sure if it was that or the cloying script, but after a couple of hours of spinning around listening to this drivel I felt like I was going to barf.

TNT RoughCut Marcus Sakey

Even more frightening are the miserable performances elicited from A-list talent, particularly Tim Robbins and Gary Sinise, both Oscar-nominated actors who perform with all the heartfelt conviction of Hawaiian-shirt-clad teenagers in a high school rendition of "South Pacific."

Variety Todd McCarthy

In outer space, no one can hear you scream -- of boredom.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

Otherwise fine actors such as Don Cheadle and Gary Sinise spend nearly two hours of film time stand-ing around like department-store dummies mouthing dialogue so wooden it's petrified.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Startlingly inept from start to finish -- it's atrociously written, poorly shot and edited and fatally unfocused.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

As intriguing as the premise sounds, Mission to Mars hasn't a single moment of real suspense.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

It's an experience as frustrating as watching Jeff Gordon drive a stock car through a bowl of oatmeal.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Gustavo H.R. gave it a 7:
One of the most underrated - and beautiful sci-fi films of the new century. Exquisitely shot, beautifully scored and suspensful, M2M is a fine entertainment.

Pat C. gave it a 3:
The special effects can't even begin to save this monstrosity. Like Moulin Rouge, it is so tragic to see such a beautiful set wasted so badly. A dagger in the heart of the space program if our congressmen ever see it. As martian movies go, it's better than Red Planet but not as good as Total Recall. But take a lesson from 2001: If you don't have a good answer to the mystery of the cosmos, don't give any answer at all.

Yoon C. gave it a 3:
Perhaps this movie can be defended as a postmodernist parody of sci-fi conventions. After all, DePalma isn't one of the most earnest directors around. Still, what comes across is a flaky new age vision of cosmic unity and other such nonsense. The movie rips off 2001, Solaris, and most of all, TV commercials of every stripe; indeed, at times it IS a tv commercial for M&M and Dr. Pepper. There are some good things like the use of lighting in the opening scene; I don't believe I've seen nighttime illuminated so crisply. But, there are outrageous things as well. An astronaut marooned on Mars for months survives on oxygen generated by a tomato plant! One wants to be generous and see the whole thing as intended comedy but it sure doesn't feel like one.

Gilbert Mulroneycakes And The Spiders From Mars gave it a 7:
Brian de "Now-Great, Now-Rubbish" Palma does it again. Watchable enough.

Donald G. gave it a 10:
Critics of this film want a better script; they want a rational, deeply psychological-verbal script. But Mission To Mars tells its story through the visual framework of camera and editing. I rate it a 10 because I think its a masterpiece of an attempt to get beyond all the human racism of characters with supposedly 'unique' feelings and especially complex psyches. What this film offers us is an imaginative and visually stunning mythos concerning the greater family of life in which the much cherished 'human psychology' obsession is radically down-played. It is to science fiction film what Mozart's Magic Flute is to opera. Congratulations and thanks ...to all concerned and especially Mr. De Palma.

Ryan M. gave it an 8:
This film depends on everything it has, which is a whole lot.

Cole L. gave it a 7:
A sci-fi flick, but it holds itself up straight with everthing it has. Which is not a lot.

Mission to Mars Buena Vista Pictures

Mission to Mars
Buena Vista Pictures