Why is it that Brian DePalma always comes close to greatness and then fails? Even his very best movies, (Dressed To Kill, The Untouchables, Carrie) are flawed and yet they are sprinkled with such genuine moments of wit and suspense that their shortcomings become doubly frustrating. A director notable for his visual storytelling ability and his constant ripping off of other talented filmmakers. His reputation continues with MISSION TO MARS, a film that works on the senses for it's first 95 minutes in spite of a hokey script and cardboard characters. It is visually thrilling, there is an inspired suspense sequence centred around a rescue drifting through space. The atmosphere is vivid and involving, and the movie seems to be building towards something very powerful......And then the ending, appallingly vague with an overly contrived sentimental climax. Why does MISSION TO MARS end the way it does!? With a promising but derivative build up, the ending seems like a bad salvage job that makes the rest of the movie fall on its face. It is almost as if an ending wasn't even written for the film, and it was left for the editors to piece together on the cutting room floor! Like every DePalma film MISSION TO MARS is shockingly empty, after teasing us with something more.
Review of Mission to Mars
