In the year 2025, Mars has become a matriarchal society and Earth's laws are enforced on it. Lt. Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge) and her team, composed of Commander Helena Braddock (Pam Grier, The L Word), Sgt. Jericho Butler (Jason Statham, Transporter), and Bashira Kincaid (Clea DuVall), find themselves tasked with the pick up and transport of high security prisoner James "Desolation" Williams (Ice Cube), incarcerated for a number of grisly homicides in the mining town. What begins as a simple transport mission turns into a complete nightmare.
The story is told through a series of flashbacks as Ballard is questioned by government officials on why Desolation was lost and what happened to the rest of her team, since she arrived back on the train unconscious and handcuffed to a sleeping area. Apparently, she and her team arrived in the mining town to find it completely deserted. Upon investigating the buildings, they find gruesome corpses hanging from the ceilings, their heads severed from their bodies. This is the exact description of the bodies found in the murders Desolation is accused of committing, but he remains captive in the prison. As they begin to uncover what happened, as told by Dr. Arlene Whitlock (Joanna Cassidy), it seems that a red dust was unearthed from a deep mining site which contained "something" that inhabited the bodies of those in the community, driving them mad and making them mutilate themselves into warrior-like creatures, while brutally murdering those who weren't inhabited by the dust. When the group falls under attack by the group of "Martians" led by a howling, gruesome giant of a Martian, the prisoners, including Desolation, and the remaining police must band together if they are to survive.
Ok, so when I first read the press release on this movie, it sounded interesting and I thought I might like to review it. After all, I love sci-fi and a little bit of thriller in there is usually a good thing. So I figured I'd watch it with J.R. Nip (who, as anyone knows, is a HUGE horror fan) and whichever one of us liked it the most could review it and keep it. He was sound asleep 30 minutes into the movie. I mean, sound asleep and unable to stay awake, the movie was so freakin' boring. I finally told him to wake up and go home and I'd finish watching it and review it. Not because I loved it or even liked it, but because at least I could stay awake for it. This movie was bad. The acting was cheesy, even though it has some fairly competent actors, like Natasha Henstridge, Pam Grier and Jason Statham. The sets were horrible. The make-up for the Martians, which was supposed to be shocking and hideous since they cut and pierced themselves, was instead stupid-looking. Also, the ending was dumb and unsatisfying; I won't ruin it for you, in case you are into self-torture (are you a Martian?) and decide to watch this movie, but I felt like I wasted 98 minutes of my life. Even the special features weren't special at all and follow in the footsteps of the main feature. There's a video diary on the making-of which is nothing more than video footage of them filming. I was bored, true, but even the actors were yawning as they were filming, so at least I wasn't alone! There was a really short featurette on the special effects which consisted of sketches, animatics, then CG. Unfortunately, there was no voiceover dialogue that even explained what was going on, so it was fairly pointless. There was also a short featurette on the music of Ghosts of Mars, which was composed by John Carpenter and performed by Anthrax and Buckethead. If you are fans of either of these bands, you'd probably get more out of it, but it was still the most interesting thing on the entire release. Finally, there's the typical audio commentary by John Carpenter and Natasha Henstridge.
Overall, as you can probably tell, I wish I hadn't wasted the time on watching Ghosts of Mars. If you haven't seen it, don't. If, by some freak chance, you are a huge fan of Ghosts of Mars and have been wanting to pick it up for your video collection, the high-def picture is definitely sharp looking and the surround sound adds to the experience (however crappy that experience may be). I think there could be a possibility that the picture was so sharp and clear that it may have made the sets look more fake than they normally would have, but who knows? At any rate, this release is strictly for fans of the movie.
