Fantasmi da Marte

Packing a badass cast & good dose of gore-filled action, John Carpenter's penultimate film (to date) features an interesting premise and even set things up well in the beginning but once the main plot takes over, the script shortcomings start to surface as dialogues go downhill, characters turn bland, acting takes a hit, VFX inadequacy is exposed, and the scare factor diminishes in its entirety. Not one of Carpenter's best but not a chore either, Ghosts of Mars still has an unabashed quality to it that makes the ride somewhat enjoyable despite the hammy acting & over-the-top execution.

Apparently GOM was originally intended to be a 3rd entry of the Escape franchise, with character Snake Plissken (Oh my god, I wish they did that instead, because Ice Cube always was, and still is terrible at acting). Anyways, that info in mind, it made so much more sense. John Carpenter's Escape visual style was right there all along, and I never noticed. The costumes, the train, the future technology, and all the visual effects are exactly the same as the Kurt Russel Escape films, just transported to the Mars location. I think part of the issue with fans is that people didn't understand what this was. It was an old fashioned future (if that makes sense). The story takes place in the future, but using visual techniques and story elements that feel dated in the past. It's actually fun that way, if you don't treat it like the Matrix, or something that actually was progressive at the time.

That's it, no deep dives. This film is Ice Cube playing a dangerous prisoner that was meant to be transferred, when things go amok for all the human survivors. It's Escape from NY/L.A. mixed with Assault on Precinct 13 set on Mars. The bad guys causing all the trouble are the "ghosts"/ weird creepy monsters that self mutilate, and are more or less what happens to people from the Mad Max movies when they have a supply of meth. Oh, I forgot the ghost spirit can travel into people's bodies.

It is fun if you let it be. It's a low budget nothing action. You get a young Jason Statham as a perv, Clea DuVall, Pam Grier in a weird pushy lesbian commander role, and Ice Cube if you are into his wide range of abilities (gangster with a Cali accent on Mars, go figure).

This is the definition of a 4-5 star flick. It is fun, and has people I like long enough to keep watching. I give 5 stars, just because it's been given an unfair wrap over the years. If you treat it like it was made in the 80's you might actually like it a lot!

I can see why people hate Ghost of Mars cause the whole movie look like it could be directed by Paul W. Anderson and not John Carpenter but you gotta know that the man is not a flipping God when he direct the unholy sequel to his 1981 steath action classic Escape From New York so watching the movie today I can cut him some slack and enjoy it.The plot of Ghosts of Mars feel like the Hollywood first attempt at a Doom live action movie when it take place on Mars where space cop vs not demon but human possessed by evil Martian spirit that make them going on a killing spree while dress up as a MetalHead and I kid you not they also sound like a Death Metal song and Metal music will kick in everytime they appears on screen.It B-movie glorious which mean it campy,cheesy and alot of fun plus you can see Ice Cube and Jason Statham played the opposite role of what are they usually doing nowadays

Sure, it's predictable. This is basically the same story as _Pitch Black_. And why is it that science fiction basically revolves around horror themes? It would be nice to see a really thought-provoking science fiction film that consisted of more than a motley group of people trying to escape from some monster. Given this, _Ghosts of Mars_ is really a pretty decent film and John Carpenter's best in some time.

I really wanted to like _Vampires_ and much of that was pretty good, but the small budget really hurt. Here, Carpent uses the budget limitations to positive effect. Most of the money apparently went for red dye for the ground. The buildings and "futuristic" train didn't require much. The story basically boils down to the basic stalk and slash as dozens of other "science fiction" films of recent vintage, but there isn't a lot of time wasted on extraneous plot.

The story is well-told, via a pretty complicated series of flashbacks and even flashbacks within flashbacks, as a group of gung-ho Martian police attempt to pick up a transport a prisoner, played by Ice Cube, only to discover that the mining station where he's being held has been overrun by the spirits of dead Martians, who inhabit their host bodies and make them do their bidding.

The story is also basically an updating of one of Carpenter's earliest films, _Assault on Precinct 13_. Along the way, there are intriguing glimpses at the matriarchical society that runs Mars, although it is never explained how or why things got to be this way. Carpenter supplies some neat music to the film's soundtrack as well. All in all, there are certainly worse ways to spend your money.

John Carpenter, together with Brian De Palma, are the only active directors who had created a body of work consisting of the representation of a particular, personal world, forged by the mixture of a number of themes and subjects, reinserted on tracks left by classic directors (Hawks and Hitchcock respectively). They make one single movie over and over again, reaching outstanding levels of accomplishment in style and coherence.

Thus `Ghost of Mars' is full of Carpenter's imaginary. The plot, the characters, the tone, everything can be linked to his previous work, most notably `Assault on Precint 13', that was yet a reworking of Hawks' `Rio Bravo'. And that's a significant point regarding this film: despite the zombies, the gore, the futuristic set-up, the red Martian atmosphere, the heavy metal score, `Ghost of Mars' is essentially a western in the most classic way. There is a train, a lawman (played by an actress), a group of deputies, a gang of bandits, a frontier town surrounded by the desert.

As in Hawks, the individuals work as a group, defined by codes of professional skill in a strictly masculine environment. Interestingly, Capenter portrays the Martian society as a matriarchy, but the elements operate the same way: the good guy and the bad guy differentiate from each other just for the fact that they are in opposite sides of the law, but are nevertheless exchangeable. Also, following Hawks' epic, the vulnerability of the hero is determined by a fault or weakness (Melanie's addiction to drugs is a progression of Dean Martin's alcoholism in Rio Bravo).

Told in a peculiar series of flashbacks from different points of view, and as in `Vampires', with the use of long, continual dissolves, the story introduces some original points, like the ghosts taking possession of human through the ears and Desolation's smart device to save Melanie with the aid of drugs. There are some plot holes, yes, some bad acting and gratuitous -though stylized- violence. But it's Carpenter unpretentious as ever, telling us how dark our future appears, not from a pulpit but from his director's chair. And I'm very grateful for his effort.