The Last Days on Mars - (by the director of fifty percent grey)

Jon Starr

Jon Starr

Veteran
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/magnolia/thelastdaysonmars/

Looks good, but I'm on the fence. It seems to be another typical sci-fi film. I love Mars and want there to be a great Mars film. I'm really angry, because there is so much that can be done with it, yet it always falls into the same tropes and ideas.

It does have an interesting cast with a director who's finally being given a chance. He directed Fifty Percent Grey, Silent City and BlinkyTM. The scriptwriter I've never heard of.

We'll see...
 
Ray Donovan on Mars.

I wonder if he'll find any little green men?

Jon Starr said:
I love Mars and want there to be a great Mars film. I'm really angry, because there is so much that can be done with it, yet it always falls into the same tropes and ideas.
Click to expand...

I hear you on that, even though I do think this film looks interesting, it feels a bit like Sunshine. Cool sci-fi thing that turns into a slasher in space or gooey monster horror thing. In terms of sci-fi/space horror, I doubt that Alien and Aliens are never going to be topped (not even Sir Ridley himself could do that with Prometheus), so I'd also like to see filmmakers try for different stories and thematic approaches with space thrillers.

At least this does have a darn good cast, and by the looks of the trailer some believable looking sets, location photography, and effects work. It seems like it could be a more down and dirty and character driven Mission to Mars style adventure/thriller.
 
Looks interesting. VFX of the ships and vehicles looks very photorealistic in several of those shots. I guess I may not be up on Scifi cliché, so maybe this is a rehashed concept, but I'm game to see this one.
 
Well it's all about execution right? Aliens was just another sci-fi Monster movie, but it was the delivery that made it spectacular. So we'll see. Looks very nice at least.
 
Meh. Looks like they threw Prometheus, Mission to Mars, and Apollo 18 at each other. It'll probably make some money, though.
 
I like sci fi so I'll probably watch this one, but there's nothing here that grabs me and makes me excited about it.
 
David Jimerson said:
The description makes it sound like a routine pick-em-off creature feature.
Click to expand...

Hehe, you may be right.

Which films have met your threshold of "a good movie" this past year or two? I recognize your picture (Kirk!) and recall you being a boo bird on another thread. Haha. No, but yeah, what kind of films have stimulated you recently?

I've enjoyed Gravity, Man of Steel, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Oblivion, Kon-Tiki, Skyfall, Wreck It Ralph, Snow White and the Huntsman, Prometheus, The Bourne Legacy, Jack Reacher, ParaNorman. (yes, I just perused BoxOfficeMojo's top 200 or so films for the past 2 years - whew) http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/

Pedestrian, perhaps. I definitely love sci-fi and perhaps I'm more into the visuals, but this film looks great. I love when movies take me somewhere that I haven't been or cannot go.
 
I love sci fi, arguably my fav genre. Other than that (gravity), I have to say Prisoners and Capt. Phillips were great this season. Have you seen 'Cube'? That was a really cool independent sci fi, granted B style acting and a heavy postmodern ending.
 
Ryan Farnes said:
Hehe, you may be right.

Which films have met your threshold of "a good movie" this past year or two?
Click to expand...

I didn't say it wouldn't be a good movie; I'm just saying what kind of a movie it appears to be.


I've enjoyed Gravity, Man of Steel, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Oblivion, Kon-Tiki, Skyfall, Wreck It Ralph, Snow White and the Huntsman, Prometheus, The Bourne Legacy, Jack Reacher, ParaNorman.
Click to expand...

Liked, Didn't Like, Haven't Seen
 
Ah, that makes sense. Yeah, it does sound like it might be a formulaic offering.

You've got to see Snow White and the Huntsman, and grit your teeth through Kristen Stewart. This film has the fantasy VFX that the Hobbit should have had. I think the Hobbit is high quality, the effects just feel so forced, so false. This film feels so much more real to me. From the dwarves to the castle and so forth.

Oh, and Gravity. Its a trip.

Speaking of VFX though, this Last Days on Mars does look good, but the rover...does feel a little fake in one of the shots. You'd think they'd go the route of Prometheus and actually build one, but I guess they can put a fake one into a fake scene more easily I suppose.
 
Ryan Farnes said:
Ah, that makes sense. Yeah, it does sound like it might be a formulaic offering.

You've got to see Snow White and the Huntsman, and grit your teeth through Kristen Stewart. This film has the fantasy VFX that the Hobbit should have had. I think the Hobbit is high quality, the effects just feel so forced, so false. This film feels so much more real to me. From the dwarves to the castle and so forth.

Oh, and Gravity. Its a trip.

Speaking of VFX though, this Last Days on Mars does look good, but the rover...does feel a little fake in one of the shots. You'd think they'd go the route of Prometheus and actually build one, but I guess they can put a fake one into a fake scene more easily I suppose.
Click to expand...

I was bored with Snow White and the Huntsman, but thought the FX were great! The monsters were really well done.

The Hobbit...why such strange looking CGI? The trilogy used great FX make up and why not follow through and do that in the HObbit, or if you're going to do CGI why make the CGI look so cartoony?
 
Gillvane said:
The Hobbit...why such strange looking CGI? The trilogy used great FX make up and why not follow through and do that in the HObbit, or if you're going to do CGI why make the CGI look so cartoony?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm curious to see how this second Hobbit film feels. The first one just had really awkward VFX. A lot of great stuff, but a lot of awkward stuff that felt far too stylized and not photographic. I think in terms of the general feel, a lot of it was inferior to the original trilogy, albeit technically superior. I don't get it. The first shot that told me what to expect was when the Dwarves are camping and they cut to this beyond fake shot on the goblins on wargs in the moonlight and it was just so so bad. Heck of a lot of clarity, but so much falseness to the feeling of reality of the moment.

This Mars film looks promising. Some of the VFX look soft, but I wonder if they're going for an atmospheric/dust residue look or something that makes it look that way to me. Most of it looks pretty good. (well, the sand storm does feel a little forced - the Prometheus one felt more believable)
 
Well - I realized it was available on Amazon and iTunes already. Rented from iTunes. (have i mentioned I hate the 24hr time limit?)

*** SPOILERS ***

Definitely had some gorgeous martian landscape stuff. Felt like you were legitimately there more or less. I didn't realize how much of a zombie film it would be. Holy crap, almost the scariest zombies I've ever seen in the first reveal. Seems like a waste to do a zombie flick on Mars, but whatever, its Mars, go nuts!

Held my attention (anxious attention) for most of the film. It would have been fun and interesting if they'd somehow represented the lower gravity on Mars, I believe it is something like 38% that of earth's. Although, that could get cheesy to have zombies jumping around like crazy. I suppose its best they left it normal and just let the zombies and people interact as we're used to.

I'd probably give it 3/5 stars just because I loved the venue of the story so much.
 
Just watched it...and I'm disappointed.

I like my Sci Fi to make sense, the equipment, the mission, the story. Here we have a Mars colony and the tech is primitive.
Mankind can land on Mars but:
(i) Why don't the space suits have telemetry back to other astronaut and their base, my iPad and iPhone have better telemetry, no tracking of equipment or people, they have to send a guy down on a rope to see if an astronaut is dead rather than using any sort of comms or suit telemetry.
(ii) The spacesuits and mars vehicles rovers have lightning that puts out no more light than a flickering candle, yes I know its done to allow the camera to expose properly but it looks false as the interior light of the vehicle puts out more light than the vehicle headlights.
(iii) Why does their re supply ship land miles from their base ?? why not at the base.
(iv) Why dont their comms work, my el cheapo eBay walkie talkies have better performance than their built in suit and vehicle comms

Crap unbelievable tech to help the story lurch along, it does not work.
 
Last edited:
The Director is actually a member of this forum, Very talented guy- I believe this project was derailed by means beyond his control. Excited to see what he does next.
 
Well he is directing major movies and I'm not so I doff my cap to him, I 'm sure he is a talented guy and I can understand how a major project can be nightmare to steer but I'm still disappointed. It could have been a epic tale.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top