Tim Burton was seen as an unstoppable force of gothic creativity that plagued the 80’s and the early 90’s that it seemed he could do no wrong. Although these days most Tim Burton films are not on the same level of passion as Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, there was once a time when one movie in the mid-’90s seem to put a damper on Burton’s almost perfect track record. That movie, in particular, is Mars Attacks!. This movie was seen as a disappointment with critics and audiences at the time of its release. However, while this movie isn’t amazing, many interesting choices made this movie enjoyable and memorable compared to the movie Burton makes nowadays.
Martians are traveling in packs to invade earth. The people of the innocent planet try to make peace with the unpredictable Martians but they get their butts handed to them leading to global devastation. Now it’s up to our humans of the earth to stop the Martain attacks before they take over the entire planet.
This is the kind of movie that pays homage to the campy B-movies of yesteryear. While it doesn’t have many interesting twists to make things even more interesting, the movie nevertheless does a good job of being as crazy and insane as it possibly can. You would have to be in a different mindset to enjoy this film because the story doesn’t take itself seriously unlike Burton’s previous projects. Because of this, it allows for many odd and creative ideas that defy basic logic and are indeed memorable, to say the least. The film has hints of Burton's creatively dark and twisted ideas even if it may not feel much like a Burton flick at some points. The storytelling is very weak but is not awful. The movie jumps from location to location without any time to take everything in and it takes 20 minutes to get to the martins. Despite its storytelling problems, I still managed to give in to the movie's weird and twisted nature, but it should be said that you’ll need to be in the right mood to enjoy this film.
The characters are not gonna leave much of an impact so don’t expect to get attached to any of them because they’ll be most likely to be killed off almost immediately. The movie has a lot of well-known celebrities such as Micheal J Fox, Jack Nickelson, A young Natalie Portman, and even Jack Black. Most of the characters are portrayed as so stupid that they make the characters from Independence Day look more intelligent. Then again, they all capture the feeling of being in a stupid campy 50’s film very well which is the intention of Tim Burton’s campy direction. Let's face it though, the real stars of the show are The Martians who are creepy and funny at the same time. I can see how their language can get annoying for some, but their unpredictable nature and sense of humor help elevate this movie too entertaining heights and makes them the star attraction of the movie. Most of the characters may be stupid, but the characters are entertainingly stupid that it makes the move laughably so bad that it's good.
The Visuals don’t quite have that same flair that made movies like Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands visual classics, but the movie still provides us with some cool effects that help add to the 50’s B-movie aesthetic that this film tries to go for. The standouts for this movie are the CG effects for the Martians. Admittedly the effects look very dated by today's standards, but I enjoy how they used the uncanniness of the CG animation at the time to their advantage to make them look intentionally creepy. Sometimes the movie will even take us to interesting locations such as inside the Martians ship which is just dripping with visual personality. Add that with some goofy and out there smaller visuals and you got a visual style that may not be Burton’s trademark style, but is still strange and somewhat appealing to make for a decent entertaining experience.
If you know Tim Burton then you probably know that composer Danny Elfman would of course be the one to score this movie seeing that he scored almost every other movie that Burton’s name is on. The score has all the trademarks such as the booming choirs and pipe organ sounds, but the score also has the typical alien sounds that mix together for an out-of-this-world experience. While it's not the finest score from Elman, it's still got all the things I would never expect less from one of the greatest composers ever.
While I do understand this movie is not for everyone, I had a blast watching this movie as it was stupid but also a lot of fun. I think this movie gets to much backlash from the public and it deserves to have more of a following than having it being shunned for not living up to the standards Burton has already established in his previous films. It may be too corny for some, but I would much rather watch a totally insane and out there movie than watch something that is bland and safe.
(Final Grade: B-)