Mars Attacks! (1996) Review

 

Mars Attacks! (1996)

Mars Attacks!, based on the 1960s bubblegum cards, follows the martian invasion of Earth and an unlikely group of Americans who aim to stop it.

Tim Burton has made some weird movies but buddy does this take the cake. It’s a spin and homage to classics of the genre in a very satirical and semi serious way that’s main goal is to assemble a massive cast and kill a lot of them in creative and fun ways. It’s parodying of classics like Independence Day, War of the Worlds, and many 50s B-movies and it’s almost intentionally aim of being bad somehow makes it...good, sort of. It’s hokey and quite ridiculous, especially with the spin on how to defeat the aliens, with really high pitched, radio waves. Another hilarious draw is the god awful special effects which use an abundant amount of early level CGI to excess, but it somehow works brilliantly in a cartoonish sort of way.

Featuring a superstar cast that had me progressively going “WHAT?” louder and louder with each scrolling name, including Jack Nicholson, Michael J. Fox, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Martin Short, and my personal favorites—Pam Grier & Jim Brown, its no wonder why all these big names agreed to be in it. The film is fun in it’s diverse cast that is meant to highlight the hilarious different subsections of America and their reactions to aliens invading Earth, representing a part of society and social status that they go the extra mile to spoof.

Mars Attacks! is so many different levels of outrageous and is by no means a great movie, but its purposeful parody of the genre is to be commended. It’s bad but it’s meant to be bad, so does that make it good?? I will say Tim Burton does a commendable job with developing so many characters and their different traits, while also jugging an alien invasion, on so little time.

Usually with movies you see when you’re a kid, and like for that matter, are often much different with age. Oddly enough, this still holds true to the childish, silly elements, while also adding tidbits for adult you watching back on this 20 years later.

(I’m conflicted at how bad this is, though also enjoyable)

6.1/10