Fuga da Marte

When you compare this movie with Mission to Mars, in which Peter Outerbridge also appears, one sees that this product isn't that bad. First of all special effects, there arent' really any and I didn't miss them, but then I don't watch movies for special effects, I watch for human interactions and story. One effect plot device did bother me, on the way to Mars the ship (an oversize space shuttle)has these gyro appendages which spin, on the way back we don't see them being deployed (the originals were jettisoned when the reached mars) and I wondered why out and not back.

The acting was better than I expected, the actors just didn't have a of story to work with and the video made for a cheap look. Despite the flaws, I liked the people (although the Russian Casanova scene was very gratuitous and it certainly was more watchable than Dr. Who. It was nice that someone gave the concept a better budget and "remade" it as Mission to Mars, but in the end this one had as much story and was a better movie because it wasn't as pretentious. Of course the latter had more special effects than a Britney spears concert . . .

ESCAPE FROM MARS is a low rent TV movie that feels hopelessly out of its depth when trying to portray a convincing picture of astronauts visiting Mars. It's a very typical, predictable kind of movie in which the storyline feels drawn out. We see the astronauts as they say goodbye to their loved ones, as they take off, as they travel through space, as they land on Mars, and then the inevitable escape.

The problem lies with the script, which presents these characters as the most boring people imaginable. There are no psychos on board, nobody loses control, instead they're all involved in cheesy family dramas and sentimental tripe. This should be a tense thriller that sees the crew battling technical issues and the like but for the most part the emphasis is on the non-existent human drama.

It doesn't help that the cast members put in the most routine performances imaginable and that there's an almost entire lack of incident so that the viewer is left twiddling his or her thumbs and waiting for things to kick off. Sadly, they never do.

The first manned mission to Mars is launched in 2015 (on my birthday, of all days!) and troublesome issues, both technical and personal, plague the crew.

While the scientific/technical problems reach their conclusions, you never really get the feeling the personal issues are there or sufficiently dealt with. "Escape from Mars" kept reminding me of the book "Mars Underground" by William K. Hartmann - scientifically strong, but lacking in good character development.

Don't expect to deeply care for the characters no matter how tender-hearted you are; you're just not given anything substantial (though the movie tries) to get emotional over.

It seems that there simply was too much too tell and too little movie to tell it all completely. Perhaps another hour would have permitted an adequate exploration of the inner-conflicts of each crew member. For those who mainly like sci-fi stories "Escape from Mars" rates well. At least, worth viewing once.

Don't go out of your way to watch this movie. If your bored and nothing else is on, it might be a decent gamble.

Of if you like really predictable bad sci-fi with mediocre actors.

My advice: If you really, really, really can't avoid seeing it... see it in fast-forward mode. Shouldn't take you more than 30 minutes which is still too long for a movie like this. Dreadful simplistic dialogues and a predictable story. This movie offers little more excitement than doing the dishes. Surgeon's health warning: avoid seeing it. Unless you fancy a nice quiet coma every once in a while.