RE:VIEW ~ “Mars Attacks!” (1996)
I saw this in the Capital 6’s massive ’Theatre One’ on the Friday evening of its release. The place was packed and there was a palpable excitement for a film based entirely on trading cards included in bubble-gum packs when most of us were children.
We weren’t disappointed.
Seeing a reference to the picture a few weeks ago, I wondered how it survived the changing societal landscape during the last three decades. Nobody needs to hear how things were better back then from someone like me, so it’s important to look at this as if the movie came out this week, not with any view of how one longs for being thirty years younger / pounds lighter / psychoses fewer.
Does it still seem funny, or have the jokes not aged well? was my first concern. The world of satire has changed a fair bit, with alteration in film tropes as well as the ‘real world.’
I wasn’t disappointed.
There are so many things which are still just as ridiculous to see as they were then. The picture’s comic book style violence is still so far over the top of even that standard, you cannot possibly take it seriously: people are not merely shot, set on fire, or pushed aside, they fly through the air with no physical logic. The infamous “Wilhelm scream” is only used twice, I think, which is incredible considering how many times it could be. The preposterous vocabulary of the President’s advisors (one of whom is the incomparable Martin Short) is still as nonsensical as ever without eerily sounding like something from today. The characters are still just as clueless as to their impending fate as one would expect from the situation today.
The acting is evenly brilliant, with the cast packed with more stars than the ‘disaster films’ of the 1970s. However the performances from Natalie Portman, Jack Black, and Annette Bening are particularly great.
The pacing is excellent, with things moving fast enough to keep the viewer guessing. Often when looking back this far, the wait for punch lines or arrival of situational pay-offs can be wearying. Not so here.
Likewise, the picture is not so long that the plot overstays its welcome, another result of stretching an idea over too far a length of time in the cinema.
I still applaud the President of the United States’ final speech, the writing being so very good. The resultant pay-off from it remains satisfying, thank goodness.
Still works very well!
★★★★★