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movie review - Ghosts of Mars

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

This is an amusing attempt at Sci-Fi by John Carpenter starring Natasha Henstridge and Ice Cube. While the discerning sci-fi fan may not have to read any farther (Carpenter even does the music for this one; the best thing I can say about that is there isn't much music in it), I gave it a whirl because of the cast. Ice Cube always puts in a good turn, and it's got Pam Grier(!), not to mention Jason Statham (from Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.

Ghosts of Mars is an action/sci-fi flick for o' the times. The good guy is a junkie and career dead-ender working for a police state run by the Woman (e.g. it's a matriarchal society, for some reason). The main male characters are shallow and adolescent, either thumping their chests or panting for sex. The bad guys are laughable cartoons. And when people die, they just get snuffed, or linger on only to cough up blood; there is only one 'avenge me, brother' scene even though a dozen characters bite the dust in terrible fashion (two of the major supporting characters get snuffed without so much as a backwards glance by the survivors). So it scores a lot of points on breaking with standard action/sci-fi fare.

But it's in trying to hammer out a story that Carpenter fails. And in the production quality, I must say. The thing just dissolves, slowly, as the body count begins to climb. Slowly - as characters are discarded - the story seems to run out of room. And then there's the final scene, which I won't share. Oh, what wasted opportunity!

Not recommended.