In the tradition of ripping off "2001: A Space Odyssey" comes
"Red Planet". (Although, "Red Planet" seems more like a rippoff of
another 2001 ripoff: "Mission to Mars").
Set more or less fifty years in the future, it begins with the
pro-environmentalist fallacy (and wet dream) that we polluted the earth beyond
repair and looked the other way until we had no choice but to have to
terraform Mars in order to find another planet to live,
two-dimensionally narrated by Commanded Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss a.k.a "Trinity" of
"The Matrix"). But it seems like the terraforming of Mars has gone wrong
and we must send a crew of socially inadequate astronauts in order to
get the scoop.
Not long after that we meet crew member Chantillas a
scientist-turned-mystic (thinly played by Terrence Stamp). "Science didn't answer the
interesting questions, so I turned to philosophy to find God" is his best
shot at both selling the lord to the audience and smearing philosophy
for the rest of us.
It is no coincidence that the only crew member with cold reason and
guts is a woman, while the rest of the crew is a bunch of male social
misfits. All the stereotypes are here to please everyone: the sexy
scientist, the mystic scientist who dies right away, the benevolent yet not too
bright and obsessed with sunglasses male bimbo (played by Val Kilmer),
the proverbial killer robot, the player (Benjamin Bratt) and the
paranoid freak (Simon Baker) who kills the player and finds his well deserved
death by the killer robot. The only glint of reason is delivered by
none other than the the male chauvinist pig of the crew--who also happens
to be a genetic engineer (played by Tom Sizemore).
After one predictable turn after another, including the hero being
saved by Russian technology (boy, we've never seen that one before!), it
all wraps up perfectly with a kiss between the girl and the guy and a
message to all of us that maybe Dr. Chantillas was right, that maybe
"something else" helped them overcome all those obstacles in order to find
the truth about the failed terraforming of Mars.
This is the kind of movie that Ayn Rand warned us about. It is the kind
of movie that includes subtle messages against reason and keeps
reinforcing anti-concepts in the viewers. This one is exceptionally evil
because it almost has them all: evironmentalist propaganda, faith in God,
male-hating, bad epistemology and the undermining of human determination
by declaring that "something else" helped them escape (and if not God,
then fear of death, not love of life).
If you're still curious about the special efffects, buy a ticket for a
better movie and sneak into Red Planet instead. When it's out on video
borrow it from someone who rented it, but do not support this kind of
movie and the people who keep making them.
