L'invasion vient de Mars

This is not a movie to be viewed from a serious perspective. But even sci-fi aficionados seem to have been losing their sense of fun over the years, which may be why this remake has been panned so badly. The whole movie is viewed from a young boy's dark imagination, right down to the ridiculous Mr. Potato head aliens. Even the camera angles are taken from child's height. And within the bizarre dream world of adolescent fears and disempowerment springs forth a really fun movie. Within this context, the remake of Invaders from mars remains true to the 1950's genre with some tongue in cheek. Relax, grab some popcorn, and warp back to the 50's, when your imagination didn't have to be fed with a spoon.

Director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), visual effects wizard John Dykstra (Star Wars), make-up FX genius Stan Winston (Aliens), screenwriter Dan O'Bannon (Alien), cinematographer Daniel Pearl (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre): there's a wealth of experience and talent behind this lavish '80s remake of '50s cold-war sci-fi classic Invaders From Mars, but it amounts to little more than a thoroughly cheesy and rather camp piece of trashy escapism. For some, that might be enough, but given its pedigree, I expected, nay, DEMANDED much more.

The film's weakest point is undoubtedly its young lead Hunter Carson, who appears in almost every scene, but is unable to even run convincingly, let alone persuade the viewer that the planet is under threat from Martians (what's with the flappy arms, Hunter?). A better actor in the central role would have helped immensely, although Hooper's direction also proves lacklustre, his film lacking in suspense but loaded with schmaltz (the overly saccharine opening family scenes suggest that the director spent far too long in the presence of Spielberg during the filming of Poltergeist). Serving to undermine the film's effectiveness further are the somewhat clunky aliens—far from Winston's best work.

Mindlessly entertaining in the way that only an '80s Cannon movie could be, the film is admittedly never boring, and benefits from some interesting set design and impressive lighting, but as a big-budget sci-fi (by Cannon Pictures' standards, at least) from the man who gave us Leatherface, this can only be deemed a disappointment. Oh, well, at least this film's failure (along with his previous sci-fi/horror flop Lifeforce) resulted in Hooper returning to familiar territory for the long-awaited Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.

5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

Invaders from Mars (1986)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Tobe Hooper's disappointing remake of the 1950s classic about a young boy (Hunter Carson) who witnesses a UFO land in his backyard and soon realizes that aliens are overtaking various people in town. The only person who will believe him is a teacher (Karen Black) and the two quickly find themselves hunted by the aliens. There were a lot of remakes going on during this era so it makes since that someone would try to remake INVADERS FROM MARS but The Cannon Group probably should have left it to someone else while they just worried about their Charles Bronson and Chuck Norris pictures. Or, perhaps they could have added Bronson and Norris to this thing and at least delivered some fun. This is a really lifeless, over-long and rather pointless remake that doesn't have much of anything going for it. Just about the only good thing that can be said about the film belongs to the special effects, which were pretty good. I thought the landing of the spaceship was rather effective with the lights being used and the monsters certainly looked very good. I also thought the set design of the cave was well done but sadly everything else here is just a bust. The biggest problem is the direction by Hooper who just doesn't bring any energy to anything going on. No matter what a scene calls for the director completely misses the boat and this includes the early scenes with him trying to show this "loving" family. There's so much sugar added to these scenes that you can't help but roll your eyes. Then when the boy comes under attack you'd expect there to be some suspense but there isn't. There are even a few hints at some comedy but this doesn't work either. The final forty-minutes of the film goes into action mode with all sorts of gun play, explosions and other craziness but these scenes too fail to gather up any excitement or energy. The performances really aren't anything to write home about either. Black is about as over-the-top in her emotions as one could get. Carson, as the young boy, isn't charming a bit and comes off more annoying than anything else. Timothy Bottoms plays the father and isn't all that entertaining. James Karen, from THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, is also so over-the-top that it seems like he thinks he's in some spoof. Even former Oscar-winner Louise Fletcher goes overboard as the psycho teacher. Jimmy Hunt, the boy from the original film, gets a fine cameo. INVADERS FROM MARS is considered one of the biggest disasters from the 80s and it's easy to see why Hooper's career started to go down. With such a budget they really should have came up with something much better but at least we have the original to go to.

Hooper and his writers seem to want to both parody the 1950s classic and, at the same time, to be a straight remake of it. Trouble is that this simply isn't possible. It looks great throughout, with superb, shadowy photography and generally good production design (though the Martian drones look more silly than anything else). Some of the actors, particularly Karen Black and Louise Fletcher, are very good; some, unfortunately including lead Hunter Carson, are not very good.

But the main failing is that the tone is so inconsistent. Some scenes are played for horror, and work; some are played as if the intent was comic, and they don't work. If the intent was to actually scare us, after being taken over by the Martians, the parents should have acted creepy -- but instead, they act silly, which is hardly the same thing. It's not the fault of Bottoms and Newman -- they could have played the roles however the director and script suggested -- but rather a failure to go for broke. In the original film, after returning from the sand pit, the father brutally slaps his son. Here, the big weird touch is that he fills his coffee cup with sweetener. Doesn't quite have the same impact.

And what's with the frogs? Kids LIKE frogs; they don't regard them as creepy. There should never have been a scene without the boy in it, but there are several. There should have been some touches of surrealism to fit the all-a-dream scenario. Dream logic isn't like waking logic, but it's stringent nonetheless; this film ignores logic. In the original, the Martians take over the parents, the neighbor kid, the cops and the military -- exactly the targets a boy would expect. Adding a teacher wasn't a bad idea, but the other targets here, including a busload of kids, don't make any sense. Why would the Martians want to control a bunch of children?

The effects are good but not as well-conceived as they might have been. The sand funnel that captures people is fancier in this remake, but much eerier in the original. And Christopher Young's score is a disaster.

The opportunity was here to make a technologically-improved version of a much-loved classic original, but for the most part, the film doesn't live up to its potential.

Title: Invaders from Mars (1986)

Director: Tobe Hooper (the man!)

Cast: Karen Black, Hunter Carson, James Karen

Review: Tobe Hoopers resume includes many great films (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Lifeforce, Poltergeist)...and many so-so ones (Spontanious Combustion, The Mangler). Invaders from Mars the re-make of the original alien invasion flick from the 1950's is one of his good ones. Not great, just good.

Early on in the film an alien spaceship crashes in David Gardners back yard, slowly but surely everyone in town starts acting weird...soon David must be the one responsible for stopping the aliens from conquering his home town...and maybe the world! This movie is a remake of the 1950 original, and just by the simplicity of the story you can tell that. It has that simple, light hearted, almost innocent feel that the movies had back in those days. But Hooper adds his only brand of weirdness and surrealism to the film that makes it feel like its some sort of nightmare you might have had while falling asleep watching midnight alien invasion films on your TV. Its the type of movie in which people start acting not quite themselves and you get that " something is wrong here" vibe going on, not unlike Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

The aliens look great thanks to Stan Winstons always excellent work. But I must admit they do seem kind of harmless. They don't seem like they could be a threat. I mean yeah they got huge gaping mouths with rows upon rows of teeth...but they feel dumb and stupid. For example they have these big ass laser guns attached to their noggins...but they get overtaken by the us army in the blink of an eye? Still, they look cool. Specially their leader who looks like a huge giant brain that comes out of a slimy worm-whole type of thing. If you ask me he also looks pretty harmless....but who cares! They are supposed to be evil! And they are trying to take over earth! Kill them! The sets are awesome, the interior of the the ship is great looking, it kind of has an organic look and feel to it. But it always beats the hell out of me why aliens from mars would have disco lights inside of their ship. You kind of get the feeling that at any moment an alien DJ is going to pop up and spin a couple of cool tunes on his two turn tables and a microphone. Anyhows, the over all effect looked cool so I ain't complaining.

Obviously production values ain't the real problem with this flick. Its sets and creatures are awesome looking.

The acting is what hurts this film a bit. Karen Black and the Kid just didn't do it for me in certain scenes. The kid sucked as an actor which explains why we probably haven't seen much of him in any other movie. His dialog was to robotic. Like he just read it and blurted it out without any actual thought or preparation as to what he was supposed to be going through in the scene. Sorry dude, but facts are facts. The only actors worth mentioning are the evil teacher and James Karen as General Wilson kicking alien ass all over the place.

Invaders from Mars is the type of film you want to show your little kid brother or cousin or son if you want to start him into horror. It goes in my collection right along side other great kid friendly horror films as The Monster Squad and The Gate. Give it a shot.

Rating: 31/2 out of 5