1/2 Mars Attacks!
Mars Attacks! previews are very misleading. At least, that's what many of my friends were saying. They said that it look stupid and corny. Corny? Possibly. Stupid? Not at all. This movie is smarter and funnier than this year's big Sci-fi movie Independence Day, but it's not quite up to the same level as ID4 was. But really, you can't compare these two movies: One is a serious spoof of famous sci-fi movies, such as War of the Worlds and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The other is such a cornballish comedy which spoofs stupid B-movies (remember Plan Nine From Outer Space?), that you have to laugh at all the funny things going on. However, this movie is smarter than ID4 which had too many stupid things (one of which was casting Will Smith as one of the main characters).
The movie opens with an interesting scene involving a stampede of cows, a spaceship, and a barbeque. This could be considered sad, but Tim Burton did direct this, and you can't really take anything in this movie seriously. The spaceship, which looks just like those fuzzy figures in the old pictures that everyone has seen in tabloids, flies back to Mars where it joins hundreds of other ships just like it. The title sequence is gorgeous and you can tell the music is by Danny Elfman because only he has the talent to make this kind of music. The ships fly towards earth where we are introduced to many of the all-star cast, such as Jack Nicholson as the President, and my personal favorite, Sarah Jessica Parker as a dim-witted talk show host. The cast is one of the best things of the movie which make the first half hour so bearable. In fact, this is the only problem that I had with the movie. The first thirty minutes of the film is slow, maybe too slow for this kind of movie. But once the aliens land, get ready for a thrilling ride of comedy and fun.
Most of the fun of Mars Attacks! is it's gags, both visual and verbal. The best visual gag can't be chosen because there are too many to choose from. The verbal ones are equally impressive and funny, including one hilarious sequence, though subtle, with a man/woman reporter asking if the aliens have two sexes. I read a lot of reviews of this movie and I noticed one overall thing: they didn't like it because it was too silly. All I have to say is, it's supposed to be that way. This movie stretches the limits of silliness, and it makes it so much more funny. The special effects are terrific, making some of them appear in the fashion of the old 50's cheesy effects, but these are more visually-stunnning. In fact, the entire movie is visually stunning, and my favorite sequence of this movie involves the aliens walking down the aisle of Congress to talk to them. The visual here is terrific. The movie is very colorful and vibrant, which contrasts most of Burton's dark comic movies, such as Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands.
Jack Nicholson plays President Dale, and a dual role as Art Land, a sleazy Vegas-casino owner. Thankfully, Nicholson is present more often as the President because he shines in this role, almost spoofing Bill Clinton. Glenn Close plays the First Lady who seems to be a mix between Barbara Bush and Hillary Clinton. Close is funny, but not as good as the rest of the cast. Pierce Brosnan probably steals the show, alongside Sarah Jessica Parker, as they play two chararacters that fall in love. Brosnan and Parker are the scene stealers and they have a very funny visual moment involving a Chihuahua, Parker's head, and Brosnan's head. This moment is one of the funniest moments in the movie and deserves recognition for it's ingenuity. Lukas Haas actually is the worst in the entire movie, and I am sad to say that he should have been killed. Sylvia Sidney is actually very funny, saying one of the best lines in the movie, "They blew up Congress!" Annette Benning is quite funny as the New-Era, 12-step rehab character. Danny Devito and Martin Short have small roles, and I almost felt that they didn't belong in this movie. Michael J. Fox is funny in his brief role as a TV broadcaster. There are several more stars that I am not going to mention, but three that I will are Jim Brown as one of the only sympathetic characters, Tom Jones as himself, and Lisa Marie, who shines in her short part and deserves credit for her acting like a goofball.
I left this part for last, because it is the best part of the movie: the aliens themselves. I'm not exactly sure what they are, if they are animated or computer-generated, but they themselves are the best effects in the movie. The way they talk is hilarious and brings up many funny moments, such as when they carry around a translator saying, "Do not run! We come in peace!" and then shooting people with their nifty ray guns. The ray guns are also visually enticing, which look like little toys that you buy yours kids to play with. But these are no toys, as the disintegrate every living human being, which is a very cool effect, even if it does get old. The aliens have huge skulls and are very colorful. Their eyes are huge and pop out of their head like a fly's. However, even with these huge brains, they are very stupid and act like little kids playing with toy people. At one point, I expected the aliens to win and wipe out the earth, but it was inevitable that the humans figure out a way to kill the aliens. It is a unique idea, and seeing aliens' brains explode never gets boring to watch. But of course, they don't die before wiping out most of the all-star cast. Only about 8 people out of the 25+ characters survive the invasion, and that's what makes this movie so different.
Mars Attacks! is rated PG-13 which almost is too light for the movie. However, the producers were probably able to get away with the violence and gore and mean-spiritedness because it's all in good fun and portrayed in a silly way. There is a sex scene, which could have been left out, but does provide some humor, and it doesn't show anything that you can't see on any TV show. Most teenagers will probably enjoy this movie because it's strange and silly and provides two hours of fun to waste the weekend away. But I feel that many people will go back to this movie because you could probably catch more things the second time you watch it, almost like watching Toy Story a second time. But just be prepared for a fun time, and remember that it's all in good fun.