Mars Attacks! (1996)

​I’ve always liked the idea of Mars Attacks. The Martians always looked cool and the idea that comes from just some old trading cards. The art was fantastic. The more adult nature of something “for kids” and how that made Mars attack more than originally conceived. The rereleased of cards, the movie, comics, models, a full on miniature war game even! Mars Attacks is an awesome story of an IP!

But does the movie hold up?

Tim Burton is hot and cold for me. I appreciate the way he has some awesome artistry to his work. His ongoing focus on teen girls is weird to me though. 

His movies are a list of the amazing and the wasted. Some great, some borderline awful, all atmospheric. 

Mars Attacks! is the perfect combination of all of this. There some awesome parts to it, with over the top characters. But that also is a problem, as early on there's an insulting gender joke right off the bat. Albeit this was around the time that Pat was a thing on SNL but it's still punching down for a cheap laugh. Same with the Martians being pleased with the racist Dukes of Hazard because it has Daisy on it.

The special effects are looking pretty dated, but actually look awesome on the in-film old tube TV's. It's campy fun and most people aren't really watching this movie now adays for anything but campy fun!

The fact that it turns from a pleasant and happy first contact into a massacre because of a dove of peace released by a hippie is funny as well. Captain Terrell being the first to die after almost being the first to die in Khan is so funny. 

That Michael J Fox dies right away instead of him being the expected hero is awesome! That the humans in charge keep making the same mistakes and it results in more death and destruction is funny because the people that are expected to be the smartest are the ones in power and they are the dumbest worst of all.

I'm not a fan of Jack Nicholson, and this movie and his portrayal of several characters is just too much of him. Martin Short playing the right hand man of the president is fantastic. Pierce Brosnan kills it as the "intelligent" scientist that we are used to seeing as the other hero of movies like this, but being so overly wrong is one of the best parts of the movie, up there with Jack Black's older brother bully getting his.

Natalie Portman as the president's daughter and one of the true ending heroes is interesting and easy to root for, but also ties into this weird obsession of Tim Burton with teenage girls.

My other biggest issue with this film is the, hopefully changing, use of people with horrible and/or questionable personal lives being in so many films until *maybe* recently. Jack Nicholson, Jim Brown, Tom Jones, heck even Tim Burton himself. It's tough to support the art but not the artist. 

All of this doesn't take aware form the camp and enjoyment that a movie like Mars Attacks! can bring. The camp is turned up to 10, the mid-mod aesthetic needs to be used more often. The destruction of everthing here is just as if not more satisfying than ID4. Such as cops running out of the donut shop before it's blown up.

The war room brings in some big Dr Strangelove vibes. The obvious plastic skeletons colored red or green look great! Rod Steiger is great in one of his final roles. That the Martians are always in their undies in the spaceships is weird but funny to see. The recarving of Mount Rushmore hilarious. That people around the earth are shown scrambling around in either stereotypical traditional garb or older more basic outfits is problematic. 

Overall the movie is enjoyable if as disjointed as this review.

If you like the "lore" (as the kids say) of Mars Attacks, this movie is worth it. But if you don't, you're not missing much.

4/10