John Carpenter, one of the greatest names in the history of science fiction and horror cinema, had his best works in 1970s and early 1980s. As time went by, quality of his work was decreasing, with many of his films that would otherwise be seen good or satisfactory, suffering in inevitable comparisons with his earlier triumphs. This happened with Ghosts of Mars, his 2001 science fiction horror film which became penultimate feature title of his filmography.
The plot is set on Mars in year 2176. The planet is colonised and mostly terraformed, but it is still far from being comfortable or secure place to live. Some of the reason for that can be found in professional criminals like James “Desolation” Wilson (played by Ice Cube). He has recently been caught in remote mining settlement. Small police detachment, led by Captain Helen Braddock (played by Pam Grier), is sent to take him to city of Chryse. After arriving to the settlement, policemen realise that their task is going to be anything but routine and they are dealing with something much worse than Desolation. Miners had apparently, during the digging, discovered not only ruins of ancient Martian civilisation but also woke up the ghosts of ancient Martians. Those ghosts posses humans and turn them into murderous maniacs. Braddock and Lieutenant Melanie Ballard (played by Natasha Henstridge), her loyal subordinate, would have to use all their skills and ingenuity to get out of the settlement alive, including making temporary alliance with Desolation, one of the few people who wasn’t possessed.
Despite somewhat unusual setting, Ghosts of Mars doesn’t look particularly original. Carpenter here, just like with many of his latter films, tries to rehash material from the earlier films that brought him glory, most notably Assault on Precinct 13. However, what looked refreshing quarter of century earlier here looks stale and unoriginal and Carpenter himself seems tired and uninspired. Even when making his score, which used to be his forte, he delivers something underwhelming, especially with the use of hard rock motives that seem to be at odds with general setting and atmosphere of the film. The biggest problem for the Ghost of the Mars is Carpenter not being sure whether he is making a straight horror film or its parody. Use of somewhat intriguing idea of Mars being matriarchal society and police officers being women is compromised by general silliness of the rest of the plot. Special effects also at times leave something to be desired, which wasn’t the case with Carpenter’s films in the past despite low budgets. What makes this film somewhat watchable is interesting cast, especially Natasha Henstridge who tries her best not to be a simple eye candy in her thankless role. She has something resembling “buddy buddy” chemistry with Ice Cube, who actually didn’t like his performance and later become quite critical of the film. Most of the critics and the audience agreed, despite Carpenter’s remaining hard core fans having sufficient numbers to give this film minor and mostly underserved status of a cult film.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo
Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax
Bitcoin Lightning HIVE donations: https://v4v.app/v1/lnurlp/qrcode/drax
Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax
1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
