Mars Attacks!

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1996	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	102 minutes	Other Extras	Production Notes Cast & Crew Biographies Isolated Music Score
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Movie
Region	4	Director	Tim Burton
Distributor	Warner Brothers	Starring	Jack Nicholson Glenn Close Annette Bening Pierce Brosnan Danny DeVito Martin Short Sarah Jessica Parker Michael J. Fox Rod Steiger Tom Jones Lukas Haas Natalie Portman Jim Brown Lisa Marie Sylvia Sydney
RRP	$29.95	Music	Danny Elfman

    Mars Attacks! is an hilarious tribute to 50s science fiction B-movies. Based around a set of playing cards that came out at about that time, it paints a picture of large brained, aggressive Martians whose goal is the conquest of Earth. Assembled to defeat them is a cornucopia of a weak president, a crooked tycoon, a mad general, an intelligent professor type, a mad scientist, an alcoholic, a new-ager, hippies, rednecks, and every other stereotypical character that you can think of. Add to this a plot which lampoons every corny plot device from these movie, and special effects which are first rate, and you have a recipe for a great 102 minutes of entertainment.

    The Martians, whilst appearing initially peaceful, are anything but, and the Earth is required to desperately defend itself from the invading Martians who are far superior technologically to the humans. An initially ineffective defence is met by the Martians' gleeful destruction of many well-known Earthly landmarks, but then Earth reveals its secret weapon. This is a weapon so powerful, and so devastating, that I cannot even begin to describe its sheer and absolute horror. The Martian super-soaker rapid-broiler weapon is left pale in comparison to Earth's secret weapon of mass Martian destruction.

    Mars Attacks! is wonderful, escapist entertainment, and has many excellent cameos by many well-known actors, ranging from Jack Nicholson as the US President and the Crooked Tycoon to Rod Steiger as the Mad Military Type to Lisa Marie as the exotic alien to Pierce Brosnan as the Intelligent Professor Type. It is well worth a watch, more so if you appreciate Tim Burton's sense of humour. You will be rewarded with larger-than-life aliens, larger-than-life explosions, larger-than-life colours, and larger-than-life comedy.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer was generally very sharp, except for the odd scenes here and there, especially towards the start of the movie, which were a little blurred. Shadow detail was generally fine, important for a movie which has many low lit sequences.

    The colours were vivid and vibrant throughout the transfer, a deliberate design decision on the part of the set designers. Early on, I noticed a small amount of colour bleeding, especially in big rich red fields, but this only happened occasionally. Otherwise, colours were well rendered.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of reasonably frequent aliasing, more prominent in this transfer than I am used to seeing these days. The usual culprits were responsible; brick walls, venetian blinds, car grilles, and a moiré on one of the reporter's hats. Film artefacts were not particularly noticeable except for a few scratches here and there.

Audio

    Dialogue was slightly muffled for a significant amount of time, making it a little hard to understand at times.

    The beginning of Chapter 4 was a little out of sync, with the audio lagging behind the video, but I had the opportunity to compare the Region 4 and the Region 1 disc, and they both exhibited the same problem, so it can be attributed to bad ADR. If not for these problems with the dialogue, this soundtrack would easily rate a reference rating, because it is superb in every other way.

    The music is a lavish orchestral score inspired by the often melodramatic scores that 50s Science Fiction movies were accompanied by. Like the rest of the movie, it is larger-than-life. It is virtually omnipresent, and helps enormously to create the overall feel of this movie. The music is aggressively mixed around the entire soundfield.

     The surround channels were frequently active, with frequent ambience, music, and lots and lots of special effects. The soundtrack was superbly enveloping, and was very effective at drawing you into the story. The surround mix is aggressive with many quite directional special effects.

    The .1 channel was used with great effect, mainly for the many huge explosions that the movie has. It gets a good workout with this soundtrack.

Menu

Theatrical Trailer

Production Notes

Cast & Crew Biographies

    The video quality is generally good, with a few minor faults.

    The audio quality is generally excellent, with a superb enveloping presence, but slightly muffled dialogue causes a slight problem with this track.

    The extras are reasonably comprehensive and interesting.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
16th January 1999