Cast: Ice Cube, Natasha Henstridge, Jason Statham, Clea DuVall, Pam Grier, Joanna Cassidy
Director: John Carpenter
Producer: Sandy King
Screenplay: Larry Sulkis & John Carpenter
Cinematography: Gary B. Kibbe
Music: John Carpenter
U.S. Distributor: Columbia Pictures
It was about six years ago, around the time of the release of In the Mouth of Madness, that I stopped asking myself what had happened to the "real" John Carpenter. This occurred when I realized that the man behind In the Mouth of Madness was in fact the "real" John Carpenter, and that the talented, maverick filmmaker responsible for the likes of Halloween and Starman hadn't stood the test of time as well as his movies. Indeed, the Carpenter of the late '80s and '90s was nothing more than a schlock director, whose product was, at best, B-grade fare and, at worst, unwatchable tripe. Carpenter hasn't started out the new decade any better than he finished off the last one. In fact, rather than being a step up from Vampires, Ghosts of Mars goes in the other direction. This motion picture is a combination of sloppy movie-making and poor storytelling. It uses pyrotechnics to fill the vacuum created by an underwritten screenplay, non-existent character development, and a lack of genuine suspense.
The story is told in flashback, and sometimes as a flashback-within-a-flashback, and once as a flashback-within-a-flashback-within-a-flashback (that's four levels deep, for anyone who's counting). The year is 2176, and more than 600,000 Earth colonists are living on Mars. A group of police officers led by a tough-talking commander (Pam Grier) has been charged with transporting a notorious criminal, Desolation Williams (Ice Cube), from the mining town of Shining Canyon to the more cosmopolitan settlement of Chryse. Also in the group are Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge), Jericho Butler (Jason Stratham), and a pair of rookies - Uno (Duane Davis) and Bashira (Clea DuVall). When it turns out that Shining Canyon has been overrun by indigenous Martian "ghosts" that possess human beings, the police, who have no choice but to join forces with Williams and his cohorts, find themselves in a desperate fight for survival and to get out of Shining Canyon. (Had Kurt Russell been available, Carpenter could have called this Escape From Shining Canyon.)
Over the course of his career, Carpenter has specialized in low-budget motion pictures, and Ghosts of Mars certainly has the appearance of one. The cheesy set design and special effects look like they were lifted directly out of a 1950s science fiction clunker. Earlier Carpenter outings, such as Escape from New York and the remake of The Thing, have boasted more impressive production values. With all of the amazing visuals that filmmakers can create using the latest technology, the cheap look of Ghosts of Mars is inexcusable.
Carpenter obviously wrote the screenplay with the phrase "B-movie quality" in mind. To call the plot minimalist is to grossly exaggerate. The actors don't play characters - they play familiar types who pick up guns, hide behind Styrofoam boulders, and chew on one-liners. Ice Cube, for example, doesn't have one reasonable line of dialogue, and his persona is essentially a second-rate version of the anti-hero portrayed by Vin Diesel in Pitch Black. (Come to think of it, Ghosts of Mars is a rip-off of Pitch Black, which, in turn, was a rip-off of Aliens.) Natasha Henstridge gets to kick some serious butt, Pam Grier is accorded almost no screen time, and Clea DuVall, a character actor who spends most of her time in independent films, is uncomfortably out of her element. Richard Cetrone takes on the role of the "terrifying" leader of the possessed miners, who looks eerily like a cross between Marilyn Manson and a member of the band KISS, and has all the personality of an earlier Carpenter creation, Michael Myers.
All of this would be forgivable if Ghosts of Mars was in any way thrilling or suspenseful. Unfortunately, it isn't either. The movie is monotonous and dull, with lots of fiery explosions, perfunctory shoot-outs, and gory battles failing to generate any excitement. It's the old Shakespeare observation - sound and fury signifying nothing. Part of the problem is that the film's flashback structure gives us a good idea of who's going to survive and who's going to contribute to the body count. It's hard to worry about Melanie, for example, when we know that she escapes virtually unscathed. Actually, even if we didn't know, it wouldn't make much difference, because her character is not developed enough for us to care. In a last ditch attempt to pump up the energy level, Carpenter resorts to a heavy metal soundtrack (of his own composition) that vibrates the theater speakers, but does little to distract us from how empty and pointless this late summer release is. Filmmakers in general should learn a lesson from this and other recent releases, and leave Mars to NASA. And Ghosts of Mars should stay buried.
© 2001 James Berardinelli