Movie Review: "Mars Attacks!" (1996) · 2:43pm Feb 20th, 2019
In 1962, Tops Company, Inc. produced a series of trading cards entitled Mars Attacks, depicting a Martian invasion of Earth via flying saucers, ground troops, and mutant insects. Although popular with children, parents and moral guardians were appalled by the series' unacceptable amounts of horrific violence*, and the series was swiftly taken off the shelves. Around 30 years later, the series experienced a resurgence in popularity amongst collectors, helped in no small part by this film.
But while the infamous trading cards depicted a dark, gory alien invasion*, this Tim Burton B-movie homage has a (comparatively) much lighter tone, and is more of a dark comedy than anything. And quite frankly, I prefer it that way, and it's gone on to be one of my favorite alien invasion flicks.
The story begins when a fleet of thousands of flying saucers, crewed by skull-faced, big-brained Martians, emerge from beneath the surface of Mars and quickly surround the Earth. The United States government takes control of the situation, arranging a first contact meeting in Nevada, with the aide of a revolutionary (but still glitchy) translating computer. The Martians land and make contact, and it seems like humanity is about to enter a new age of peace and progress.
Then a hippie releases a dove. The Martians zap it. Then they zap everyone else.
The world is in shock, but the government quickly rebounds, and (thinking that the dove was interpreted as a sign of war) quickly arrange for a second meeting between the Martians and Congress. The Martians, apparently remorseful, agree.
Except that they weren't scared of the dove. They were always planning to take over the Earth, and they were just messing with us the whole time, and they make their intentions quite clear in the film's most well-known scene...
...so after that little disaster–coupled with a botched assassination attempt on the President's life–the Martians declare all-out war on Earth. As they wreak havoc and hunt down the remnants of the US government, they occasionally stop to have a little fun, including carving their heads into Mount Rushmore, taking vacation photos as they blow up the Taj Mahal, roll a huge bowling ball over the Easter Island heads, and watch Godzilla and The Dukes of Hazard in their spare time.
But just when all seems lost, a young redneck donut-shop worker and his grandmother accidentally discover the Martian's weakness...Slim Whitman's Indian Love Call. No, seriously. It makes their heads explode into green slime. So now, armed with this knowledge, the survivors fight back, defeating the Martian invasion and beginning to rebuild society.
To be honest, I didn't expect to enjoy this film as much as I did. I'm a fan of old-style sci-fi movie, and this film was a real treat to watch, at least for me.
The story doesn't have much sustenance, but frankly, I don't think it needs to. It's a little slow in the beginning when we're getting introduced to everybody, but things quickly pick up once the Martians land.
The special effects were great, in my opinion. They're intentionally made to look like low-grade CGI, but the models are still rendered quite nicely. The color of the film are crisp and bright, and in an age where everything is washed out or given a filter, that's a joy to the eyes.
One of the big highlights of the film is Danny Elfman's musical soundtrack, with a rousing sci-fi feel featuring a lot of choir voices and theremins. In fact, his opening score might be one of my favorite movie soundtracks of all time:
Another thing that is immediately remarkable about this movie is the sheer number of big-name actors that they snagged for this film. Seriously, take a look at the cast roster. In this one movie, we have Michael J. Fox, Pierce Brosnan, Danny Devito, Jack Black, Martin Short, Natalie Portman, Glenn Close, Tom Jones as himself, and Jack Nicholson in a dual role (as the President and a hotel developer in Las Vegas). And that's only half the cast! And out of all those names listed above, only Natalie Portman and a few others actually live to the end of the movie.
But the true stars of the film, in my opinion, are the Martians themselves. They're like the Minions from Despicable Me if they decided to get semi-serious about being evil. They only talk in "ACK ACK ACK"s, and the only time we ever get a fleeting glimpse of what they might actually be saying is with that glitchy translation computer. And the Martians take great delight in taking advantage of it's glitchy programming. Case in point; as they bombard Las Vegas with death rays from their saucers, and their ground troops fry civilians and soldiers into skeletons, they carry that computer around, talk into it, and it spits out: "DON'T RUN. WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS".
On another note, this film features what I consider to be one of the best Presidential speeches in movie history. When cornered by the Martian Emperor, his aides and Secret Service dead, President Dale makes a passioned speech for peace. It's a big moment for him, as prior to this, he'd have his aides write his speeches for him. Dale came up with this one on the fly. Take a listen. It's actually kind of moving...
Yeah, it doesn't work and they kill him anyway, but still.
As for the violence level, believe me, it's far more tame in comparison to the stuff that goes on in the trading cards. Of course, the sight of people getting fried into skeletons takes a little getting used to, but it quickly passes when you remember that the movie was set for a near-Christmas release date. So everyone getting zapped into green and red skeletons was their way to reference that. There's not a lot of blood on the human end, the exceptions being a small trickle when President Dale gets killed, and a little bit prior to that when a US Army general is shrunk to two inches high and stepped on by the Martian Emperor. There is of course, a lot of Martian blood spilt when they play the country music to kill them, but it's not too disturbing since it's green and looks like those slime toys you see in toy stores.
I think my least favorite scene in the movie is the aforementioned assassination attempt scene. What basically happens is the Martians disguise one of their own as a human woman who (silently) charms her/it's way past White House security in the dead of night. It almost works too well when the President's playboy Press Secretary, played by Martin Short, invites her into the "Kennedy Room" (yes, they are referencing that moment in Kennedy's career; the one they don't like to talk about). Nothing actually happens though; she/it kills him with a statuette and then resumes her/it's mission, but it's still a scene I could have done without.
Apart from that, I just feel like we didn't get enough of the Martians. Maybe it's because the pretty much steal the show for me whenever their on, but I feel like we could have gotten more antics out of them. Oh, well.
So overall, I'd give Mars Attacks! a 4 out of 5. Not perfect, but it does have some pretty good stuff, and it's become a favorite of mine.
This is Jade Dawn, signing off...for now.
*I need to stress that, if you're squeamish or otherwise cannot tolerate excessive violence, do not look up those trading cards. Take my word for it when I say that there was a good reason they were pulled off the shelves, and why I like the movie better.*
I saw Nostalgia Critic talk about it. 😅
I watched that film, and I thought it was okay. It has good humor, decent action sequences, and great soundtrack. But what really bothers me is the characters are dying over and over again, and the story's all random for an alien invasion flick. But at least Independence Day is better than this movie.
5017241
Personally, I kinda prefer this one over Independence Day. I mean, that movie has a good soundtrack and effects too, but I just seem to gravitate towards this movie a little more.
I also saw the Nostalgia Critic talk about this. Huh. Contrasting opinions, it would seem, are common.
Interesting review.
I’ve never seen this film, nor have I had much interest in Tim Burton films, but you’ve definitely caught my interest.
Fun Fact: The closest I’ve come to in terms of Burton’s films was “James and the Giant Peach”, and the live-action “Alice in Wonderland”, the former which I especially enjoyed. The previews for the live-action Dumbo film have also caught my interest in seeing it, as it looks like they’re not going to be directly copying the original.
5017515
Honestly, any shred of half-respect I had for NC went completely out the window with his Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom review.
5019310
You know, it's ridiculous to think about, really. Director Tim Burton and the people who made Transformers are making a live-action adaptation of Dumbo??!!
5020053
I know.
But, it does look like it’ll be great.
5017515
I can see this review here obviously being different from the one done by that idiotic, overgrown manchild.
Of course.
5020053
5020058
Eh, you never know. It looks okay to me so far.
I don't know about you, but I absolutely cannot wait to see what Burton's gonna do with the pink elephant scene. Considering how trippy the original was, I'll bet he's gonna have a field day with it.
When will you be doin get your next Movie Review?
5045573
I don't really know. My family and I saw the anniversary showing of Ben-Hur last Sunday, so I might do that.
5045582
I was just wondering.
It’s been a while since you last did a film review.