Red Planet (2000) – Film Review

Director: Anthony Hoffman
Cast: Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tom Sizemore
Certificate: 12

By Roger Crow

It’s around 25 years since I last saw Red Planet, and apart from a couple of the main cast and an interesting robot, I can’t remember a thing about the plot.

Is it a bad film? No. Even after 25 years, it still looks fantastic, and the latest 4K UHD release looks better than ever. That colour palette, which looks like it was art directed by Tony Scott, all fluorescent greens and blues that really pop, is very easy on the eyes.

“Interesting possibilities”

And when it comes to filmmakers called Scott, his brother Ridley visited the same territory when he made a fantastic conversion of Andy Weir’s novel The Martian in 2014/15. Not that you know it’s also shot in the Wadi Rum desert, which is one of the most popular locations for directors filming movies such as the Dune saga and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. And in many ways it’s like a precursor to The Martian, albeit with, sadly, zero diversity.

Carrie-Anne Moss gives a terrific performance as Bowman, captain of the mission (obviously a nod to a key character in 2001: A Space Odyssey). Her romance with fellow crew member Val Kilmer is hinted at early on, and then through flashbacks we realise they are more of an item than we thought.

The supporting cast includes Terence Stamp, now much-missed like Kilmer, and fellow crew member Tom Sizemore. Stamp may as well walk around with ‘sacrificial pawn’ stamped on his suit, because you just know he’s not going to last that long. Perhaps more amazing is the presence of Simon Baker, who many may remember from The Devil Wears Prada, fantastic thriller series The Mentalist, or both. Director Anthony Hoffman does a not-bad job of sustaining the suspense; the sets and spacesuits are rather fantastic, and the droid at the heart of the mission is also rather interesting; she looks a little like the Transformers antagonists seven years before that was a thing.

Like Mission to Mars, which was also released in 2000, this is a film of interesting possibilities, but like Brian DePalma’s movie, it also falls away short of the mark. I enjoyed Red Planet more than MTM, one of the most annoying films of the 2000s.

“Fascinating”

Some of the special effects look dated, which is inevitable given the fact that this was made in 2000. While others, especially the production design, stand up quite well.

It’s not a bad watch, even though at times it’s reminiscent of The Terminator, and in one scene during the finale, a key moment in The Abyss. Yes, James Cameron would’ve done a much better job with the material, but it’s not the worst film you’ll see on 4K UHD this year. And for sci-fi movie geeks like me, it’s fascinating giving it a second look, which helps enormously as one of the key moments halfway through, when the crew are running out of oxygen, I had completely forgotten about.

It might not be your favourite movie set on Mars, but it’s well worth at least one look, especially in this super hi-def format.

Roger Crow( Writer )

Adopted Yorkshireman Roger Crow developed a passion for film and TV in the 1970s and 1980s. He has been a published film and TV reviewer since the 1990s; a world travel and restaurant critic since the noughties, and for the past decade has assessed the pros and cons of live gigs and theatre productions around the UK. His ideal day would involve reviewing a performance of Bat Out of Hell, followed by a Pad Thai while being serenaded by Texas on a cruise around Europe.
crowsfeat.com; nostalgiahhh film podcast

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