The Last Days on Mars [Blu-ray]

Many of this movie's negative reviews on Amazon. com are trite, superficial and shortsighted. After several viewings, I've come to the conclusion that this is in fact an excellent film. This is a visually stunning movie with amazing attention to detail in the spacecraft sets and equipment, astronaut attire, and the vistas of the Martian terrain. The views of Mars in "The Last Days on Mars" are just as spectacular and awesome as those in "the Martian," a movie with a much higher budget. The outer space scenes are equally impressive and drop-dead gorgeous.It should be mentioned that Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ruairi Robionson and a special effects team headed by the people responsible for "District 9," "X-Men: First Class," and "Avatar" were involved in making "The Last Days on Mars" such a visually exciting (and yes ... terrifying) movie.As for the cast, Liev Schreiber as Chief Systems Engineer Vincent Campbell and Elias Koteas as Captain Charles Brunel were the stand-outs as they used rational thinking and good judgment in a horrific situation. In short, if you're a science fiction buff, "The Last Days on Mars" is essential viewing. Don't let the negative reviews dissuade you from viewing this enjoyable and intriguing movie.

Hint: when you see the words "Prescience Films" rolling in the opening credits then not too many minutes later the Liev Schreiber character makes a comment about the space ship that's their ride home being a "coffin" then connect those dots to his "prescient" flashes - not hallucinations or flashbacks - you'll know what happens in the rest of the film. I really wanted this to be a genuine character driven film and it does seem to start out that way then bam! because the writers couldn't create an interesting scientific plot they dream up an itty bitty virus that turns people into monsters. And of course, everybody dies. Yep, everybody.For me, some of the character problems: the unlikely petulant attitude of one of the female crew, a captain who goes against his better judgement and grant's a request for a spur of the moment excursion by a crew member who isn't transparent about his motives and which gets everyone killed (but hey if this is a horror film instead of a legit sci-film then I reckon that's an acceptable plot device). And the psych doc crew member? I mean really? They'd send up a big ol' fraidy cat? The point is, these are some of the least likely humans NASA or whatever agency, would send on a very long mission to Mars. But, that's another plot point that tells you early on that this isn't going to be a juicy sciencey film (it's juicy all right just doesn't have the stuff to get my brain juices flowing...)It's like writers draw a circle and write the world ALIEN in it then start brainstorming how they can create (ripoff) something ahem, fresh... from that film. Same but different. If you like horror monster movies that go nowhere you'll like this one. If you want a story where characters don't just react to a mashup of exaggerated disasters, characters who we can relate to through their internal conflicts that they grow through and discover resolution and direction--you don't want to watch this movie. If you want human infected with Mars virus and turns into a monster who kills everyone (self included), blood, gaping slashes, gore... grab your bucket of popcorn and park yourself on the couch and enjoy.So what did I like about the film? Richter's music score, great as always. I'll buy that. Skip the film.Since I skipped most of the last half of this film I have time to crank up Interstellar and watch for the 25th or so time.

Mars zombies. Right. Pretty good special effects, though. Also credible Mars rovers and other space hardware. But the premise of a Mars pathogen that turns the Mars ground crew into un-killable zombies that can still operate sophisticated hardware is so bad that it became interesting to see if I could complete my zombie movies Bingo card.

Sci-Fi horror is a cool genre. I was looking to watch more of it after getting into the movies Apollo 18 and Event Horizon, and thought this would be another good one. What hurt the movie was lack of explanation in some parts. How exactly did Marko get infected? How exactly does that infection spread? (These are kind of important when zombies/zombie-like monsters are involved.) What do the samples brought into the base, and the mold growths in the hole, have to do with what's going on? And what was so significant about what happened to the main guy on the Aurora? I feel like whatever happened should have been scrapped if it was never explained, but at the same time it seemed to figure into the movie enough when that same guy was going into the vents.Again, it wasn't bad, and I do think it's worth watching. The zombies look really cool (I love that shot of the zombie bathed in that red light looking out the window) and that this happens in space with so few places to escape to and limited oxygen adds tension to the situation. But it would have been a lot better if they explained the points I listed above.

Like many films on the border between "A" and "B", this one seems to confuse people. Maybe it's the mix of sci-fi and horror, with the sci-fi purists not getting down with the horror, and vice versa. More likely, it's the inexcusable scientific errors--such as every injection being administered straight into the neck (neither intravenous nor intramuscular--more like intra-tracheal), and the line, "it's a virulent bacteria!"But consider some of the more highly rated sci-fi pics, like, oh maybe "Gravity". There's no disputing the fact that Gravity is no better than The Last Day on Mars, and I think the latter is much better--the suspense and dramatic tension are more complex (in a good way) than anything in recently released main-stream sci-fi films.I would like to write more, backing up my generalizations with specific examples from "Mars", but there's only so much time I can devote to these things. I'll follow up later, if I can.

The BD was in excellent condition. The story is almost like any other marsian movie: beware of alien bugs!. The actors and actrices are not very good and the characters did not come out well. The music is sometimes terrible!, unsuitable for the theme. My eyes got tired looking at the dark, flickering lights due to the alarm, close up combats. But all in all, it is worth watching.

Not terrible, but not great either. As a sci-fi fan, I found this a reasonable, if formulaic, by-the-numbers thriller. Production values are generally good throughout, with nothing in the sets or effects looking cheap or obviously improvised, and the cast in general deliver solid performances, but there is the occasional moment of Bad Science (one scene in particular with Romola Garai stands out here) and general idiocy that doesn't fit in well with the rest of the plot (a scene towards the end with the base psychologist). You can also see how it's going to end from some way away too. If you like your sci-fi, it's cheap enough to justify taking a look.

I was looking forward to this release as I like space Sci-Fi but I have to agree with some other reviewers that this dvd disappoints. The Sci-Fi effects are good although some of the shots are just so fast and short that they're difficult to follow. None of the characters stand out particularly nor have I heard of any of the actors and the few women are not particularly attractive. This time a Martian colony of intrepid explorers release with their meddling some murderous zombies. The film Apollo 18 was much better; also Moon and Gravity.

Seems to have a decent plot but descends into typical "we got to Mars but we can 't go home". It' all been done before!

Loved this film. But then I am biased. Liev Schreiber is one actor I enjoy watching and so far I have not been disappointed. I agree with*Dark Genius's* review. Without repeating myself he explains much that I agree with after watching this film.