With last spring's "Mission to Mars" opening so strongly, Warner Bros decided to push back "Red Planet" so they wouldn't feel the "Mission" tidal wave. As I entered the theatre to see Planet I thought back to "Mission" and hoped that it wouldn't be the same kind of thing. I was shocked, delighted and a tad bit disappointed but Planet was still a better ride than "Mission" ever was.

"Red Planet" stars Val Kilmer, Carrie Anne Moss and Tom Sizemore as three astronauts on a terra-forming mission to Mars in the near future. Kilmer plays Gallagher, an eccentric mission engineer who has designed a robot to help navigate the Martian surface. The robot's name is AMEE. Moss plays the mission commander who has had a long career in the Navy and loves to hang with the guys. Sizemore plays a geneticist who knows a lot about the science side of the mission including the algae sent onto Mars' surface. Upon arriving around Mars, the astronauts are thrown into jeopardy and Moss commands her crew to abandon ship. As she watches her crew escape she decides to stay behind in a last desperate effort to save her ship. Will the captain repair the ship in time? What will the astronauts find on the Martian surface?

"Red Planet" has a fast beginning and allows the viewer to spend a lot of time on the Martian surface. Planet is very raw. Like Apollo 13, we have a lot of desperation in trying to find a little piece of something that could help to save the mission. I liked this tension and the appearance of no safety net as the astronauts fight to survive. I loved the unique robot created by Kilmer and how it becomes a threat on the planet.

The real sad thing I found about Planet was how they used a lot of hokey ways to get out of tension sequences. One example was when the crew can't communicate with their ship so they decide to walk over and find a probe sent to Mars back in 1997. (Can anyone say Pathfinder?) They rip apart Pathfinder grab on of the internal boards and two wires and call for help. For me that seemed to be pulled off the same way as the Professor made inventions from two coconuts in the TV series "Gilligan's Island". There are at least six more of these hokey circumstances. Write me if you can name them.

Over all I enjoyed Planet for its raw and original take on Mars but I just wished there was a little more ingenuity thrown in to some of the mission parameters.

(3.5 of 5) So Says the Soothsayer.

In the near future Earth is polluted to the point that humans are trying to find a new home somewhere else, Mars. Originally unmanned terraforming probes were sent to the planet to create an atmosphere, but something went wrong and the atmosphere didn't properly generate. NASA hastily puts together a manned mission to mars, Mars 1, to investigate the problem. Once the team of astronauts arrive the problem becomes much more complex.

Plot: The story works in the sense that the plot didn't become so thin that the movie's run time was put into question. The story is pretty cut and dry, humans go to Mars and something bad happens...just about every Mars film has the exact same plot and this one doesn't improve much on the formula. The big bad monster in this film is a robot that the crew brought with them, which was clearly added to the script to give the movie some focus, and the protagonist is an under appreciated scientist that seems to be required for every mid-quality science fiction film. During the movie the question of faith versus science is brought up, but poorly developed into a sub-interesting plot point. All in all its a mediocre script that will keep the average moviegoer occupied, but yearning for something more. ***(out of five)

Acting: The movie's entire on-screen cast only contains six actors and not a single one of them seemed interested in this movie. A sense of boredom seeps through every line uttered through the whole film. It seemed that none of the actors were energized by the script or the director. Very uninspiring. Val Kilmer hasn't been this uninteresting since his short stint as Batman in Batman Forever. **1/2(out of five)

Directing: Honestly, there are some truly beautiful Martian vistas in this picture, the image composition is simply excellent. Everything else though... Suspense never reaches the levels that it should have, (I'm supposed to be afraid of that robot, right?) director Antony Hoffman couldn't properly energize his cast, and the films pacing is a tad bit slow...especially considering there is no story. A good first entry for the newbie director, but definitely not what this movie needed. ***(out of five)

Music: Sometimes good, sometimes bad. Composer Graeme Revell has a history of both good and bad scores, but this film fits somewhere in between. Towards the end of the film there is some great dramatic music whereas at the beginning of the film the music would have been better off not being there. Perhaps it was just an experimenting time for Revell, but the score suffers because of it. ***(out of five)

Special Effects: When this films release date was moved, to avoid direct competition with Brian De Palma's Mission to Mars, the special effects gained a few more months to polish up their work and, trust me, it shows. Of the major effects scenes, the sequence with the zero gravity fire and the sequences with the AMEE robot are the best technically and cinematically. Although I didn't like the robot that much as the film's major villain, its interaction with the live-action characters and environment was fantastic. Plus it was a cool looking little killing machine. The zero gravity fire sequence felt much like staring at a lava lamp, although nothing truly amazing is going on it is still mesmerizing in its organic simplicity. ****(out of five)

Bottom Line: Red Planet is a mediocre space adventure that leaves the audience feeling unfulfilled. Technically speaking its not a bad movie, but it surely isn't a good one either. ***(out of five)