If you’re going into Mission to Mars expecting an Armageddon-like testosterone fest, think again.  It’s more of a cerebral space flick, closer to 2001: A Space Odyssey and Contact than Independence Day.  Mars is rated “PG,” so the violence is relatively tame, but there are enough edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting scenes to make it worthwhile.  In Armageddon, you had a pretty good idea that everything would work out and that the Earth would be saved, but one of Mars’ best features is its unpredictability.

Mars opens in 2020 on the eve of a groundbreaking mission to the red planet.  The first-of-its-kind journey will take six months each way, with the crew spending a full year on the surface of Mars.  During the opening party scene celebrating the impending mission, Mars introduces us to the main characters of the film.  There’s the husband/wife team of Woody Blake (Tim Robbins, Arlington Road) and Terri Fisher (Connie Nielsen, Soldier) and the husband/dead wife team of Jim and Maggie McConnell (Gary Sinise, Reindeer Games and Kim Delaney, NYPD Blue).  The idea of NASA allowing married couples to participate in the same missions is preposterous, and Mars’ writers brush the issue off like an insignificant complaint.  Other characters include Luke Goddard (Don Cheadle, The Rat Pack) and Phil Ohlmyer (Jerry O'Connell, Body Shots), the latter of whom seems way too thick to be involved with space travel.

When the party scene ends, Mars quickly flashes forward thirteen months, where the four-man Mars crew has already landed and set up their base camp on an area of the fourth planet called Cydonia.  Using a remote-controlled mini-rover, they see a strange triangular mass on the top of a mountain.  When the crew tries to bounce radar off of the mysterious object, it gets all angry and creates that red sand vortex thing that you’ve probably seen in the film’s trailer (and last year in The Mummy, but who’s counting?).  Casualties ensue, and a rescue mission is immediately launched from the World Space Station to save the remaining member(s).

The rescue mission, which is supposed to take six months, is catastrophically doomed, as well.  They have to land on Mars during a huge sandstorm, which seems pretty scary since I don’t even like to land at LaGuardia when it’s drizzling.  I won’t reveal which characters are in each mission because that would ruin the surprise of who gets bumped off.  And it is kind of surprising.  Also shocking is the fact that when the rescue mission lands, the survivor(s) are all disheveled and unshaven.  Like they wouldn’t have brought razors for the original two-year mission.

Mars was directed by Brian De Palma (Snake Eyes) and penned by a hodgepodge of screenwriters (Jim and John Thomas, Wild Wild West and Graham Yost, Hard Rain).  The script is pretty well developed, fully focusing on the crew and their mission.  In fact, the only non-space scene in the film is the opening party shot.  You don’t see the launch, you don’t see what I imagine would be incredible media hype surrounding the mission, and you don’t see any grieving wives and children.  What's more, you don’t even know if anyone on Earth is privy to the deep space predicament.

Adding to the glossy sheen of Mars are cinematographer Stephen H. Burum (an Oscar nominee for Hoffa), editor Paul Hirsch (Oscar winner for Star Wars) and scoremeister Ennio Morricone (recent Golden Globe winner for The Legend of 1900).  De Palma shows why he’s one of the more experienced directors around with just one long scene that takes place in a rotating, no-gravity portion of the rescue ship.  Mars’ special effects are solid and the sound is particularly amazing.  It may not make you ponder the meaning of Man’s existence, but you should still be entertained.

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