Mars Attacks!, 1990 - DVD

I decided to watch this movie after having seen Big Fish. I though Big Fish was a decent movie, although not as good as some of Burton's other films.

So... having seen Mars Attacks! a second time (the first time being in the theaters in '96), I have to say that this is the second worst Burton film... the first one being Planet of the Apes.

BUT... (everyone I know has a big but), I don't think the fault lies strictly with Burton. I think that the story is what hurts this film the most. Not the overall plot, mind you. It was certainly a neat idea, and understandable why Burton was drawn to the project. No, I think the biggest problem this film has is its characters and a large portion of the scenes that leave us with plot holes, or are pointless all together.

I'm not sure where they got Jonathen Gems from, but he hasn't written anything to write home about (oh boy...). You can see where Burton worked hard to make scenes work, and where scenes were just so out there and useless that they had to be shot, just to continue the flow of the movie, in one direction or another.

It's understandable how an ensemble piece, with Burton attached, got so many talented actors and actresses... but this has to be one of the worst ensemble films I've seen in a long time. Even the star power of this film couldn't help it breaking even at the box office (with a budget of $70 million, Mars Attacks! ended up grossing just over half that.)

In fact, I would have to say that the majority of the portrayals in this picture were down right awful. Probably the best acting in the film, aside from the Martians (who were all great) came from Rod Steiger and Lukas Haas. I was not impressed with any of the other work, including Nicholson (who played two roles).

You can see all of the trademark Burton images breaking out. The color schemes, the dark undertones... but the story killed this film. I can't stress enough how a bad script can kill a movie, even from a great director.

Ok, ok... I wrote a bunch about bad writing, and I just erased it, cause that's a dead horse. Burton tried. You can see that on the screen. There are some decent parts in the movie that scream out Ed Wood, Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands. In a great way. But scenes don't make a movie. A good movie, anyway.

Danny Elfman did some decent work with the score. I was impressed, not having heard it for so long. Again, his earlier work with Burton (and other directors) is much better than the scores he's creating now-a-days.

All in all, not a worthwhile movie. Fun in the beginning, but the story takes a spiral towards the second act, which gives way to bad character development (or no development), bad set ups that are ridiculously predictable and, just a waste of good talent.

Sorry to be so harsh... but I find it impossible to believe that no one in charge of the production (or even Burton himself) didn't say to the powers that be "Uhhh... some of this really doesn't make sense."