Mission Mars was entertaining for its time
Alright, by 2009 standards, MISSION MARS (1968) was excruciately low-budget cheesy fare. But when I watched this sci-fi flick at the theaters in 1969 with my dad, it was state-of-the art. Don't forget the high budget, more technologically advanced special effects of Star Wars, Alien, Terminator, et al, were still far in the future.
I thought the movie was fairly entertaining when I watched it as a kid. Like other youngsters, I freaked when the talking large, silver alien orb starts killing the astronauts and sucking their bodies in. Actually in the movie it only kills one. Nick Adams sacrifices himself by inexplicably strolling into the silver orb (looks like it was covered with tin foil), while reminiscing the emotional farewell of his fiance..." There'll always be that one place where no one has been before and one day you just won't come back." Nick Adams starts screaming at the top of his lungs which must have freaked out the intellgent mechanical alien orb. It promptly explodes so violently that almost no debris is left. Darren McGavin (of later Kolchak: The Night Stalker fame) is left to escape Mars with the sole surviving Soviet cosmonaut he had found frozen stiff as a mannequin on the planet's surface. Somehow the Russian cosmonaut thaws out alive with no visible lasting injury and helps operate the American spacecraft as it escapes Mars.
A lot of fun was made of the open helmets the astronauts were wearing on the surface of Mars. But in 1968, very little was known of Mars compared to today. Scientists back then actually thought that Mars might have a very, very thin, near-breathable atmosphere, enough to entertain the possibility that surface spacesuits did not have to be hermetically sealed. Scientists back then thought the atmosphere would still be too thin to breathe (true) but would be just barely dense enough to wear thin spacesuits and those open helmets. Today in 2009 we know the atmosphere is too thin to allow an open helmet and in any case is not breathable. More, the surface temperature is far lower than what scientists thought it would be back in 1968. We also know today that the surface of Mars is toxic with chemicals, metals, and other harmful elements. You don't want to get any of that into one's spacesuit. And that's why Mars is a dead planet. Hence, future astronauts venturing on Mars would be relegated to wearing protective suits almost as bulky as those worn on the moon.
The two cosmonauts seen floating in space were truly cheesy even back in 1968. Those were obviously cheap, molded plastic figurines. I'm certain the movie industry could have come up with something more realistic even for 1968.
Nick Adams is shown welding what looks to be a futuristic, bullpup configuration assault rifle. Actually it was real weapon. It was semi-automatic shotgun in a bullpup configuration that enjoyed a short vogue. It didn't last long. The pump shotgun reigns supreme today of all police shotguns.
The astronauts are shown communicating in real time with Mission Control. We know this is not possible due to the distance between Earth and Mars. I don't remember the exact amount of time, but I recall that it takes up to 8 minutes for radio signals to traverse from Earth to Mars and vice-versa.
Nick Adams died in Los Angeles before MISSION MARS was released. According to the Internet and Hollywood Babylon, he died from an overdose.
Overall, if you want to like watching MISSION MARS, put your mind in a 1968 timeframe and you'll find it more likeable.