Two things should be clear about Mars Attacks. First of all, the fact that it's a Tim Burton movie, and secondly, the fact that most Tim Burton fans have something against it.
The reasons are fairly simple. First of all, it's a pretty average sci-fi comedy, with cheesy dialogue and little to no plot. Most of the characters exist solely to be in varying amounts of pain. The special effects look terrible, the casting is seemingly completely random, and to top it all off there's random deus ex machina moments involving Tom Jones, of all people.
Secondly-- people expect Tim Burton to write dark, Gothic fairy tales about misunderstood outcasts and pale moon light and blah blah blah melancholy death of insert-subhuman-Mary-Sue-here. If you look at any of Tim's movies though, you'll quickly realize that there's always, always, a definite level of cheesy humor in there. Tim likes humor. "Vincent" had humor, "Frankenweenie" was full of it, and it wasn't until Edward Scissorhands that there's even the slightest hint of serious drama in any of Tim's worlds... and even poor Edward was a good fifty percent slapstick and sitcom-y laughs. So Mars Attacks isn't in any way shape or form an exception-- the only difference is this time it actually LOOKS bad.
On purpose, of course, say the Burtonites. And you know, it kind of is. The random neon-green skeletons, the catatonically brilliant gum-chewing Lisa Marie, the whole Poppy fusion thing, every bit of it is just Tim and his crew going wild with bad sci-fi clichés. The effect of growing up on Ed Wood's movies, or the happy whee joy of being back together again with Danny Elfman, or whichever the reason... everyone is just having random fun, and it shows. It's dead funny. And remarkably more coherent than would seem.
Mars Attacks isn't a bad movie, at all. It's a random fun Tim Burton movie that happens to look hideously stupid. never mind the fact that it's based on some freak combination of a trading card game and, well, Great Glass Elevator... never mind that fact that Danny Elfman, after seventeen+ years of Oingo Boingo and two sad sad years without his favorite director, finally gleefully gets to use a whole positive butt load of theremins. Everyone working on this thing is happy, and everyone I've seen this movie together with agrees it's incredible amounts of fun.
All that said, I can recommend Mars Attacks to anyone looking for a slightly off-beat space comedy. The cast list should have at least half a dozen stars able to draw you in, and you can trust Tim and Danny to join forces for... well, something not quite as good as the 1994 Boingo album, but close, very very close. Oh, and your kids will love it too. Go see!
The reasons are fairly simple. First of all, it's a pretty average sci-fi comedy, with cheesy dialogue and little to no plot. Most of the characters exist solely to be in varying amounts of pain. The special effects look terrible, the casting is seemingly completely random, and to top it all off there's random deus ex machina moments involving Tom Jones, of all people.
Secondly-- people expect Tim Burton to write dark, Gothic fairy tales about misunderstood outcasts and pale moon light and blah blah blah melancholy death of insert-subhuman-Mary-Sue-here. If you look at any of Tim's movies though, you'll quickly realize that there's always, always, a definite level of cheesy humor in there. Tim likes humor. "Vincent" had humor, "Frankenweenie" was full of it, and it wasn't until Edward Scissorhands that there's even the slightest hint of serious drama in any of Tim's worlds... and even poor Edward was a good fifty percent slapstick and sitcom-y laughs. So Mars Attacks isn't in any way shape or form an exception-- the only difference is this time it actually LOOKS bad.
On purpose, of course, say the Burtonites. And you know, it kind of is. The random neon-green skeletons, the catatonically brilliant gum-chewing Lisa Marie, the whole Poppy fusion thing, every bit of it is just Tim and his crew going wild with bad sci-fi clichés. The effect of growing up on Ed Wood's movies, or the happy whee joy of being back together again with Danny Elfman, or whichever the reason... everyone is just having random fun, and it shows. It's dead funny. And remarkably more coherent than would seem.
Mars Attacks isn't a bad movie, at all. It's a random fun Tim Burton movie that happens to look hideously stupid. never mind the fact that it's based on some freak combination of a trading card game and, well, Great Glass Elevator... never mind that fact that Danny Elfman, after seventeen+ years of Oingo Boingo and two sad sad years without his favorite director, finally gleefully gets to use a whole positive butt load of theremins. Everyone working on this thing is happy, and everyone I've seen this movie together with agrees it's incredible amounts of fun.
All that said, I can recommend Mars Attacks to anyone looking for a slightly off-beat space comedy. The cast list should have at least half a dozen stars able to draw you in, and you can trust Tim and Danny to join forces for... well, something not quite as good as the 1994 Boingo album, but close, very very close. Oh, and your kids will love it too. Go see!
Tell Your Friends