The Last Days on Mars

The Last Days on Mars_360P

The actors were spot on, the visuals were spot on, the script was crap. Zombies in space, that is all. I have no idea how Hollywood managed to secure the money for a script like this. Every single thing in this movie is good except for the script. If they had given this movie a script similar to moon, it would have been a 9/10 for sure. As the movie continues all I can do is feel sorry for the actors and the behind the scenes crew. Everyone really put the effort and time in to make this a good movie, except for the writers. I wish that I could get in touch with the producer, and just shake him or her for a few solid minutes, to properly convey my anger at his complete failure to finish the deal. He got a great crew together and could have filmed a great movie, but instead took a script out of the pile and threw it at the cast and hoped for the best. For shame, for shame.

I'm very confused here. As I said, I almost didn't watch this because of the nasty, although entertaining, reviews. Then I saw one that gave a glimmer of a positive response to the film. For my part, I find most films lacking in endless categories and I can find flaws in this film as well. But it is a solidly watchable and engaging film. A review compared this to 'Ghosts of Mars', a film I have seen and that I found watchable, but somewhat ridiculous. If I were to score it, I'd give it a 3-4. This film is a 6, maybe even a 7. It is a similar premise, but done more believably and well enough that I would like to know more. It had a premise similar to that 'Alien' franchises prequel that came out a little while ago, as well. The movie kept my attention, was well paced throughout most of the film and the characters seemed well developed and engaging. It left questions that fit the storyline and leave room for a sequel that, I for one would, try to watch. My only dislike of this is from a personal slant and that is that I would love a movie that does not have the seemingly requisite coward in it. I am so sick of that. You'd think that if someone is sent into space and has been poked, prodded, tested and retested; that the freaking tests would include determining if there is such a critical weakness present. I would recommend this film.

Well that was a nice scifi/zombie surprise. This is the first space movie to be real in the way that they did not have lights "in" the spacesuits, as you would never want to have bright lights in your face when your are on an EVA in a very dark place. So you get a movie where you do not see the actors faces for most of the action scenes, but you give up things for truth right? The cast is great, and very diverse just as you would expect for an international manned research trip to Mars. My only real gripe is that they seemed to have the camera system installed by the same people the kitted out the ship in the first Alien movie. In the future we do know now for sure that there will be plenty of cameras. However you do get Mars, Astronauts, Cool Rovers, Chrystal Zombies, Original Total Recall moment. I enjoyed it, and you can too.

I saw this at a market screening at Cannes. I was very impressed by this simple but rewarding film. It's easy to draw comparisons to Prometheus, and LDOM comes out ahead, in my view. The version I saw was not finished as far as sound and vfx, but the story was solid enough that I never questioned motives and I did want Liev to survive and win. There were actually a lot of issues, but they were all small, and certainly insignificant when compared to, I don't know, Charlize Theron running away from a falling ship IN THE SAME DIRECTION it's falling. Sorry. Back to LDOM. It's interesting, tense, exciting, and ultimately rewarding. It's not complex, by any means, but the director did a great job; great performances, and Liev actually did well. Plus, the characters had actual, consistent motivations. Though not always fleshed out, the characters Dawson created would at least refrain from trying to touch the evil looking, snake like thing that popped his head out of the 1000 year old, murky water immediately after displaying to the audience and the whole ship's crew that you're a huge vajeen when it comes to even dark places.

The crew of the Tantalus Base is ready to finish the activities in Mars and preparing to return to Earth after a six months mission on the Red Planet. After a sand storm, Commander Charles Brunel (Elias Koteas) summons the team composed by Vincent Campbell (Liev Schreiber), Rebecca Lane (Romola Garai), Kim Aldrich (Olivia Williams), Robert Irwin (Johnny Harris), Marko Petrovic (Goran Kostic), Richard Harrington (Tom Cullen) and Lauren Dalby (Yusra Warsama) for a last meeting. However Marko tells that he needs to fix a sensor and he goes with Harrington in a rover to the place. The loathed Kim barges into Marko's computer and finds that he has secretly discovered some sort of bacteriological life in Mars. Meanwhile the ground collapses beneath Marko and he falls and dies in a hole. Harrington asks for help and Brunel and Dalby arrive at the spot. Brunel realizes that they need a cargo gear equipment to rescue Marko and Dalby stays at the pit. When they return, Marko and Dalby have vanished and Campbell explores the pit. Meanwhile Marko and Dalby appear at the base and the Martian bacteria have transformed them in zombie-like creatures. They attack Harrington and break in the outpost, attacking the crew. Each one that dies turns into zombie. Will the survivors succeed to escape from the zombies? "The Last Days on Mars" is a patchwork of several other movies, such as "Alien", "Prometheus" and "Mission to Mars" with "Night of the Living Dead", when a group of survivors is under siege of zombies. The plot has a promising beginning, with an interesting scenario, and good performance of Olivia Williams, but her character dies very soon. The rest is the use of clichés and a predictable story. My vote is five. Title (Brazil): Not Available

Take a really bad movie like "Prometheus" substract any kind of talent and you get "The Last Days on Mars" Worse than that cheap rip off of a script, the bad acting, lighting, directing, cinematography, the cheesy music etc etc is the fact that you never get the feeling that you are actually on Mars. Mars really looks like some desert in Nevada with some filters put on the camera lenses. The "actors" (if you really like to call them that) run around in ridiculous space suits from a 50s B movie and nobody must have told them that there is some other kind of gravitiy on Mars. Speaking of "Gravitiy". Go and watch the movie of the same name if you like to see how a real space movie is done and skip the utter disaster which is "The Last Days of Mars".

Surprisingly enough I liked this movie, even though I hate Liev Schreiber (third grade actor). Someone did his homework on how not to have too many flows in the script, but even so he made it a bit too transparent and obvious in this way. The soundtrack is what made me like the movie and the small little details that were placed, with effort I might add, in the background of the story. There are a few flaws here and there, but the acting was OK (a bit indifferent in most cases and with very small doses of emotion), but there were no illogical decisions made and that's how it should be if you are a scientist and know what you are dealing with and have an idea how to deal with, as well. Also I liked the idea that they didn't use stupid zombies and rather introduced us to a "parasite" that used the host's capabilities (intelligence and memories) to get it's needed resource (water). Even so, they become part of the background and not the main focus of the story, still they made a good impression by adapting, in the sense they ultimately went for human blood, since it contained water. Also decision making in this movie is done progressively, following certain steps and protocols and not skipping to the fastest and dumbest solution (like holding in the station till help arrives). I will give credit to this movie (8 out of 10) for the effort it was done to make me be drawn in the action, cause I appreciate the little things, that most movie in our days just don't even seem to care for. But I warn you, it is predictable until the end, unless you like the action and stick to it.

This film is just poor sci-fi done without any directorial skill, character development, plot, pacing, etc. Scientists and researchers act like *. Camera jerks around like palsy. Dialog is tree-wooden. And BORING. At 96 minutes this felt like a decade. Even the lead Schreiber-- who is really a good actor, can't save this turkey. YIKES! Sometimes you ask yourself how something can get made and you have no answer-- this is one of those times. The story is SO deritive and do we need zombies in space? Even the "science" is so bad it's laughable. Also-- and this is something every director should remember (it's not tough), text on the screen should be large enough for home video. This text was microscopic. One last thing-- the murals in the background of many shots were so bad, they were funny. :) I wouldn't hire this director to wash my car. End of story.

A group of astronauts on their last days on Mars discover the answer to age old question "is their Life on Mars?" with terrifying consequences. Although based on Sydney J. Bounds short story writer Clive Dawson debatably borrows the most interesting parts of Red Planet (2000), The Thing (1982), Prometheus (2012) and Mission to Mars (2000). Director Ruairi Robinson offers realistic and impressive visuals, this isn't your low budget Stranded (2013) or Apollo 18 (2011). Robinson's sci-fi chiller is unavoidably reminiscent of Alien (1979) as the crew are picked off one by one, and Prometheus with it's infection aspect and 28 Days Later (2002) 'rage' thrown if for good measure. However it's so well executed it has it's own identity, whereas the likes of some of the aforementioned and for example Sunshine (2007), Event Horizon (1997) or Pandorum (2009) to name a few had good ideas they arguably never managed to fully satisfy in every act. Here The Last Days on Mars doesn't pretend to be anything its not - delivering mainly due to it's simplistic yet interesting survival story, packed with horror visuals and silhouettes coming out from the shadows of the space compounds, through martian dust storms and chases from A to B. The small cast ensemble including the excellent Liev Schreiber and Elias Koteas are on form, notable is Olivia Williams as the competitive science officer and Romola Garai gives much of the emotion. Both Goran Kostic as Marko and Tom Cullen are particularly memorable. With great costumes and set design the makeup and special effects are first rate, the martian location, space vehicles and compounds are wonderfully realized. It's bloody and gory in places, the virus zombie like infection is unnerving. Robinson creates some real suspense, tension and atmosphere in amongst the frantic horror set ups. To its credit both Dawson and Robinson are not afraid to give a bleak and ambiguous closing and while many of the elements have been seen before The Last Days on Mars refines them into a film that does what it says on the tin and delivers some serious dark space horror entertainment. Recommended.