20140427: Horror Review--Last Days on Mars

Last Days on Mars

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. British live action feature length film, 2013, rated R, 98 minutes, horror, zombies, scifi.
2. IMDB: 5.5/10.0 from 15,459 audience ratings. Spoken word is English.  Estimated budget, 7 million pounds sterling.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 20% on the meter; 26% liked it from 7,797 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.3/5.0 from 108,308 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Ruairi Robinson.
6. Starring: Liev Schreiber as Vincent Campbell, Elias Koteas as Charles Brunel, Romola Garai as Rebecca Lane, Olivia Williams as Kim Aldrich, Johnny Harris as Robert Irwin, Goran Kostic as Marko Petrovic, Tom Cullen as Richard Harrington, Yusra Warsama as Lauren Dalby.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Opening set on Mars in Aurora Mission 2, toward the very end of the mission.  There's a sandstorm, elided time, then a scene with Vincent and Rebecca picking up Kim.  The ground crew and the orbiter had lost contact, but the radio link was re-established.


2. Marko and Tom go out to fix something that Marko left incomplete.  Kim, who is almost universally disliked, barges into Marko's computer files and discovers what seems to be clear evidence of active bacterial life.  At about the same time, there is a cave in right beneath Marko; he falls into a cavern.  The rest survey the situation, then return to base to get equipment to enter the hole safely.  Dalby stays behind at the accident site.


3. The group returns.  Vincent goes down and has a panic attack without finding Marko.  He's quite a mess when they bring him up.  In parallel, the team notices that two pairs to tracks are headed back to the base structures.  At the base, Kim and Richard prepare for Dalby and Marko to return.  Kim is concerned that communications was not established; Richard is in a hurry to let them in.


4. About 34 minutes in, the movie breaks.  It started out as a competent SciFi effort with good production values.  After the 34 minute mark, it becomes a zombie film and an elimination derby.  Zombie Marko apparently did not need a space suit, and he immediately kills Richard, who gets the alarm started before he dies.  Kim barely escapes while Brunel wards off Marko.  Brunel exits the airlock as well, but not before he gets a pick axe through his suit into his chest.


5. Vincent, Kim, Lane, Irwin, and the injured Brunel go to the hydroponics unit where there is air but no zombies.  When the skipper Brunel starts to turn zombie on the table where they are hoping to fix his wounds, one knows the prognosis for the group is dim.


6. Does anyone get back to Earth?  If they do, is that a good or a bad thing?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Neither SciFi nor zombie; watch at your own risk.
2. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 Excellent pre-zombie, not so good post-zombie.


2. Sound: 5/10 Excellent pre-zombie, not so good post-zombie.


3. Acting: 7/10 Seemed absent during zombie rages, but was rather good otherwise. Without Liev Schreiber, I would not have finished it.  The others were competent, but had much less screen time as non-zombies.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 I quite liked the ending, but this was neither a good SciFi nor a good zombie offering.