In 2011, Walt Disney Pictures decided to try and save Robert
Zemeckis’ production studio and distribute Mars
Needs Moms. With Seth Green providing motion capture, it starred Dan
Fogler, Seth Dusky, Elisabeth Harnois, Mindy Sterling, and Joan Cusack. The
film bombed, losing $135 million, becoming the second biggest box office bomb
in history.
Milo (Green, Dusky) discovers his mother (Cusack has been
abducted by Martians who want to use her skills in parenting to raise their own
young. He hitches a ride on their craft and lands on the planet, determined to
find her.
This film certainly deserved to lose money. It may have some
good acting and visuals, but the story is quite boring. Milo wanders all around
Mars in order to find his mom and comes across Gribble, who was in the same
boat as him 25 years prior, but failed. There’s also an excitable Martian named
Ki who thinks Earth is still stuck in the 70s. It’s a premise that really should
have worked, but it just lacks a whole lot of heart, which does the film a
disservice.
The characters are also annoying. Milo and his mom are your
average pairing of preteen with attitude and exhausted mother, until the end
when he realizes he loves her. But how long is it going to be until he starts
acting up again? Gribble and Ki should have been the best and funniest
characters the film offers. Problem is, he’s annoying and she doesn’t have a
lot of characterization other than the “funny alien.” Really, her character was
done much better by all the aliens from “Galaxy Quest.”
But again, the visuals are pretty good, especially with the surface
of Mars and the very sterilized Martian base. It also does well in not
forgetting about the lack of gravity. Unfortunately, as has been repeated many
times before, good visuals can’t make up for a lackluster story with boring characters.
#106
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