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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Ghosts of Mars: Collector's Edition (2001)

Ghosts of Mars: Collector's Edition (2001)

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Released 12-Apr-2002

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Science Fiction Dolby Digital Trailer-City
Audio Commentary-John Carpenter (Director) & Natasha Henstridge (Actor)
Featurette-Video Diary: Red Desert Nights
Featurette-Special Effects Deconstruction
Featurette-Scoring Ghosts Of Mars
Theatrical Trailer
Trailer-The Forsaken; Urban Legends 2; The Glass House
Filmographies-Cast & Crew
Rating Rated MA
Year Of Production 2001
Running Time 94:06
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (76:41) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By John Carpenter
Studio
Distributor

Sony Pictures Home Entertain
Starring Ice Cube
Natasha Henstridge
Jason Statham
Pam Grier
Clea DuVall
Joanna Cassidy
Case Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI $36.95 Music John Carpenter


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
German Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
German
Hindi
Turkish
German Audio Commentary
English for the Hearing Impaired
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    There are some films that I get to see during their theatrical release and decide that I must, even if it means tearing a few heads off, own it on DVD-Video, and there are some films that I miss during theatrical release that, upon seeing them on DVD-Video, decide that I was fortunate to have done so. Ghosts Of Mars is an example of a third category - films that I missed during the theatrical exhibition and then felt, after seeing the DVD, like an idiot for having done so. I was an idiot enough to have listened to all of the negative publicity and deciding not to see the film, which is a pity, because this is a real cracker of a film that I really enjoyed upon first viewing.

    The story is told in flashback style, and set in the year 2176, a time where human society has done a 180-degree backflip to become highly matriarchal. Mars has been colonised, but there are a lot of problems facing the colony, including a rather heightened murder rate, such that the police force is more like a militia. The story opens as a train that was supposed to be carrying a wanted criminal pulls into a station, but when the local militia boards it, all they find is a sleeping, handcuffed Lieutenant Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge). When Melanie is summoned to testify at an information hearing by her superiors, we go back to when she and her team were sent to pick up and transport a man who goes by the name of "Desolation" Williams (Ice Cube).

    With Sergeant Jericho Butler (Jason Statham), Bashira Kincaid (Clea DuVall), Commander Helena Braddock (Pam Grier), and Michael Descanso (Liam Waite) in tow, Melanie arrives at the colony where Williams is being held, only to find it deserted. Finding numerous bodies with their heads torn off, Melanie makes the assumption that Williams has simply killed again, but the truth turns out to be much more complicated than that. It seems that a scientist named Whitlock (Joanna Cassidy) and her team have uncovered a significant archaeological find nearby, but in doing so, they have awakened a spirit (hence the title) that possesses the colonists and turns them into lunatics gibbering in Martian, led by a man known only as Big Daddy Mars (Richard Cetrone).

    As the team rescue some more colonists and learn more about what is going on in the colony, we are treated to some rather interesting displays of violence that earn the film its MA rating nice and comfortably. However, compared to previous John Carpenter films like The Thing and They Live, Ghosts Of Mars is surprisingly restrained, both in the humour and gore departments. Still, if Total Recall meets Resident Evil (the video games, I mean) sounds like your idea of a good night's entertainment, you cannot go far wrong with Ghosts Of Mars.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 Enhanced.

    This is a razor-sharp transfer, with abundant displays of fine detail for those who have a fetish about such things. The entire film was apparently shot at night, and apparently had to be very carefully lit, which shows in the excellent shadow detail that, while not revealing quite everything to the viewer, is more than enough for the story to make sense. There was no low-level noise on offer in this transfer. The possession POV shots are an exception (according to the commentary, they were shot on video), but this was a deliberate effect that works quite admirably.

    The colours in this film are rather muted and subdued, giving the Mars colony the look of a civilisation that has been cobbled together from scrap, and the transfer captures this without a hiccup. The possession POV shots are full of colour bleeding, but this appears to have also been a deliberate effect.

    MPEG artefacts were not found in this transfer. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of aliasing that was more distracting because of its frequency than its severity, with the most distracting instance being on Jason Statham's visor at 40:25. Film artefacts consisted of a few small black or white marks spread throughout the film's running length.

    The English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles are extremely faithful to the spoken dialogue, and rendered in a much thinner font that unfortunately shimmers a fair bit. However, if I were Jason Statham, I'd be extremely offended by the subtitles' description of my mode of speech as an Australian accent at 4:53.

    This disc is RSDL formatted, with the layer change taking place at 76:41, between Chapters 24 and 25, just after Natasha Henstridge finishes describing the simple plan that went awry. It is accompanied by a pop in the soundtrack, making it noticeable, but relatively non-intrusive due to its location.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    John Carpenter films tend to use sound in order to create a more immersive experience, and Ghosts Of Mars is no exception.

    There are three soundtracks on this disc: the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 kilobits per second, a German dub in Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 kilobits per second, and an English Audio Commentary in Dolby Digital 2.0 with surround-encoding at 192 kilobits per second. I listened to the original English dialogue and the Audio Commentary.

    The dialogue is always clear and easy to make out, except for the lunatic ramblings of the possessed, which is actually meant to be Martian speech and is therefore not meant to be understood. There were no discernable problems with audio sync.

    The music in this film was composed by John Carpenter, and performed by two rather interesting artists: Anthrax and Buckethead, with the occasional bit of guitar solo contributed by Steve Vai. It is a fairly typical John Carpenter score, using brooding sounds, unusual time signatures, and various effects to create a foreboding atmosphere that provides a lot of the horror by itself. Frankly, if they're trying so hard to sell DVD-Audio or SACD, why don't they put out a collection of Carpenter's film scores? Now that I would buy.

    The surround channels are used very aggressively to immerse the viewer in the action, proving the old adage that sound is at least half the experience in cinema. Numerous split surround effects are used to support the sounds of voices during the possession POV sequences, or weapons during the battle sequences, to name my two favourite examples. The score music also gives the surround channels a good workout. The best examples of the surround channels being used to the fullest are when the access lift opens at 15:42, and when weapons are flying through the air at 51:26. The channels are almost always active, but these two examples are the ones that really stand out.

    The subwoofer was also used aggressively to support the action and music, providing a constant floor on the effects that, while not particularly standing out in any way, kept the film interesting without calling undue attention to itself.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Menu

    The menu is static, nicely themed, and 16x9 Enhanced.

Audio Commentary - John Carpenter (Director/Writer/Composer) & Natasha Henstridge (Actor)

    I have a short list of directors who make very interesting commentators, with Paul Verhoeven obviously being right at the top. John Carpenter is the next name down, because he also provides some very interesting insights into how his films are made, what he is trying to achieve, and how he interacts with the other talent. Natasha Henstridge also provides some interesting insights, letting the audience know what a challenge it is to make films like this one, among other things. In short, this is a commentary that provides unparalleled insight into a much-maligned art.

Featurette -Video Diary: Red Desert Nights

    This sixteen minute and fifty-eight second featurette is a collection of unannotated (and sometimes uninteresting) B-roll footage. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound.

Featurette - Special Effects Deconstruction

    This six minute and thirty-two second featurette is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound. It is not 16x9 Enhanced.

Featurette - Scoring Ghosts Of Mars

    Of all the featurettes on this disc, this is by far the most interesting due to the footage of Anthrax, John Carpenter, Steve Vai, and Buckethead at work. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound.

Theatrical Trailer

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and 16x9 Enhancement, this two-minute and one second trailer does a good job of selling the film without giving away too much. It's a pity this trailer wasn't used more in Australia.

Trailer - The Forsaken

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and 16x9 Enhancement, this one minute and fifty second trailer does not do a good job of selling the film.

Trailer - Urban Legends 2

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, this one minute and forty-four second trailer makes the film (which is titled Urban Legends: The Final Cut, incidentally) look more like a music video. It is not 16x9 Enhanced.

Trailer - The Glass House

    I don't know why I saw this film theatrically - Leelee Sobieski is nothing more than a really bad actor with a stupid name. This two minute and fourteen second trailer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, and it is not 16x9 Enhanced. It makes the film out to be a hell of a lot better than it actually is.

Cast & Crew Filmographies

    Filmographies for director John Carpenter, Ice Cube, Natasha Henstridge, Jason Statham, and Pam Grier are presented under this submenu. They are handy if you want to see what other titles to hunt down in order to see more of each party's work.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

    Unless you have an overwhelming urge to miss out on half the picture information (a real crime considering the glorious cinematography on offer here), Region 4 is the winner in this case.

Summary

    Ghosts Of Mars is not the best John Carpenter film, but I'd take his worst efforts over some other directors' best work. This film presents a most intriguing possibility for our future, and creates a haunting atmosphere that Carpenter is famous for. All in all, I highly recommend it to fans of science fiction or Carpenter himself.

    The video transfer is very good, let down only by frequent aliasing.

    The audio transfer is of reference quality, and will torture your speakers half to death.

    The extras are interesting, but not great.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Dean McIntosh (Don't talk about my bio. We don't wanna know.)
Thursday, April 18, 2002
Review Equipment
DVDToshiba 2109, using S-Video output
DisplaySamsung CS-823AMF (80cm). Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL).
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationSony STR DE-835
SpeakersYamaha NS-45 Front Speakers, Yamaha NS-90 Rear Speakers, Yamaha NSC-120 Centre Speaker, JBL Digital 10 Active Subwoofer

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