MovieChat Forums > The Last Days on Mars (2013) Discussion > This film made me so effing mad!

This film made me so effing mad!

posted 10 years ago by tamtle
51 replies | jump to latest

I love a good sci-fi, and i'm willing to sit through most of them. but i got so mad sitting through this one. I got so mad because all the astronauts were freaking idiots. the screenwriters didn't do their research. you have to be the best of the best, the smartest of the smart, to be selected for a space mission. instead, all these astronauts were acting like pansies with an IQ of a negative! in today's world, with SARS, anthrax, legionella, ebola, heck, even the common cold, every scientist in every facility knows about containment and quarantine. don't bring any *beep* into my lab/into my building if you have disappeared for awhile, can't communicate, or look like a zombie. and if a crewmember shows up looking like death, then don't try to save it or talk sense to it, just contain it first, then run tests and ask questions. these astronauts were constantly saying, "What just happened?", "Why is it doing that?", "What's going on here?!". it just made me so effing mad that they could be that stupid. even the ship that came to take them home, it just opened the cargo door to let them in. nobody does that. i blame the director and writers. when you disregard the viewer's intelligence, you totally lose.

no wonder it didn't make any money and got such a low rating on Rotten Tomatoes. all the best acting can't save a stupid character. I feel a little better now.

[–] MarwoodWalks 10 years ago

Disagree.

We understand the dangers as we know its a film. The people in films are acting like its real life. Imagine in real life if a zombie came toward you, you would NOT instantly think 'thats a zombie'. You might think its a drunk or a mental.

So yes they have protocols, but in reality if your friend comes to you with what seem to be injuries, you would try to help.

Also the first contact with the zombie, they didnt know he was like that, as she didnt see his face till he was in the base. She knew something was up pretty quickly.

Having said that, i thought a couple of them were very slow on the uptake once the threat was seen.

"Fiery the angels fell; deep thunder rolled around their shores; burning with the fires of Orc"

[–] Unicorn-9 10 years ago

The people in films are acting like its real life.

The people in this film are meant to be astronauts. NASA, at least, doesn't hire Special Ed astronauts; they have their choice of thousands of the best-qualified, most stable, smartest people in their fields, and take only the best. Because only one person has to screw up to destroy a multi-billion dollar vehicle or space mission.

This movie was a huge missed opportunity precisely because it ignored that and gave us a gang of astronauts who flew to Mars on the short bus. Almost all of the problems (two glaring exceptions being the wrong gravity level and sounds travelling through Mars' atmosphere just like it was Earth) were in the script, not the production.

Are you seriously suggesting that astronauts in real life who flew to Mars wouldn't even have pre-planned protocols for dealing with any micro-organism they found?

[–] MarwoodWalks 10 years ago

Are you seriously suggesting that astronauts in real life who flew to Mars wouldn't even have pre-planned protocols for dealing with any micro-organism they found

No, they did. They had anti virals for ever thing that exists on earth.however they were unprepared both mentally and medically for zombies!

"Fiery the angels fell; deep thunder rolled around their shores; burning with the fires of Orc"

[–] fatman_2000 10 years ago

hi space zombie please stick this drill that's just lying around in my stomach.

[–] asildroca 9 years ago

I know! And what about the knife in Irwin's hand at the end. Why would they have a knife like that on board anyway?

[–] mickmaxy 10 years ago

The people in films are acting like its real life.

No. No they weren't. When Dalby sits waiting in the vehicle talking to Brunel and she hears the rear door/s opening why did she not immediately report it to base?!? Was she expecting a pizza delivery that she didn't want to share? I don't frigging think so. Situations like this are not indicative of people, especially astronauts, behaving as one would in real life! It's one of the biggest let downs in the horror genre, it would be a lot scarier if you can relate to the person and therefore be immersed in the situation to allow fear to become believable, but instead you spend your time rolling your eyes at just how unrealistic their reactions are, then hoping they die a painful death for shattering the illusion the film tries to create. I'm only 40 minutes into this movie and my hand is already creeping towards the eject button on the remote, it's becoming lamer than a legless racehorse. And yes, immediate quarantine is the first and trained response to someone affected / infected by unknown causes in an alien environment, on this planet or any other.

Now if you'll excuse me I have the remainder of the movie awaiting my disappointment.

[–] MarwoodWalks 10 years ago

An astronaut on mars would not radio in when the door opens when they have colleagues still outside. Also what do you think she would think it was...a burglar?, zombies? Martians? those are the LAST things she would think...in real life.

Decent film in the b movie genre.

"Fiery the angels fell; deep thunder rolled around their shores; burning with the fires of Orc"

[–] mickmaxy 9 years ago

I hear what you're saying but the character was ON the radio to base at the time and her base commander was asking what was going on but she just froze up apparently, I would think she would assume it was her lost / hurt colleague and inform base command. Not a bad movie though for its genre.

[–] Kent_Kainer 9 years ago

Well, she reported back that someone is getting in and then she stopped.
The Cpt/leader said he is concerned about the last msg.

---
Lincoln Lee: I lost a partner.
Peter Bishop: I lost a universe!

[–] mickmaxy 9 years ago

Oh ok fair enough, I must have missed that.

[–] Mr.Big 10 years ago

Agreed.

They had better quarantine protocols back in the 60's, when they didn't even land on anything.

I normally avoid negative reviews, but I expected a lot more from a modern Science Fiction movie portraying the exploration of Mars.

It's expected to aspire to a more intelligent audience, and not the typical matinee horror mentality.

The box cover should have at least had some sexy half naked space chicks with big red slash marks across the screen.

The Last Days on Mars...
They don't call it the RED PLANET for nothing.

[–] mpadpy 10 years ago

IQ's and smarts have nothing to do with common sense or being able to effectively judge a situation. I know quite a few so called smart people who have trouble closing car doors.. Or opening child proof bottles. It made me realize that you could know a lot of theory but putting that into practice is a whole another ball game. Or coming up with a solution to a problem that is not in a book would be far beyond their capabilities. But hey they can run all around me in the class room while I can barely get the passing grade. A lot of companies are also realizing now that you can hire top of the class grads but they cant do any real job without intensive hands on training. The number of people who are smart and able to put that into practice are few and far in between.

C

[–] tamtle 10 years ago

They do not select dumb or average people for space missions. You have to be all around balance in IQ and EQ. You have to pass psychological evaluations, go through many training sessions, simulations, and you do it over and over again. And they don't pick crew members who are best friends or have emotional ties, they select individuals who work well together, make decisions together, with an objective team dynamics. The characters in this film were all fighting each other, yelling and disobeying orders, constantly knocking each other down. That's not how it works. Listen to me, the director and writers did not do their research. And intelligent people felt insulted and which made the movie so unbelievable and so bad.

[–] MarwoodWalks 10 years ago

Tamtle,

Sci fi horror films are not for you. I cant think of any that have the sort of people you think they should have as characters. It would certainly make for a boring film.

So why did you watch it?

"Fiery the angels fell; deep thunder rolled around their shores; burning with the fires of Orc"

[–] Unicorn-9 10 years ago

Even the characters in Alien knew better than to bring alien life into their ship. There was a whole plot point about one of the characters letting it in precisely because they wanted it to infect the crew in order to bring the aliens back to Earth.

But that's the difference between good screenwriting and bad.

[–] MarwoodWalks 10 years ago

In Alien they have encountered alien lifeforms before, so are much more used to the idea of aliens existing, and have procedures in place to deal with them.

In this film, no one knew the virus/spores or whatever it was was out in the open. They thought a sample was taken and was in a container. They had no idea anyone was infected at first.

In Alien the lifeform was not contained...it was in the air they would be breathing.

I am not saying this film has 'good' screenwriting, its not the sort of film that requires it. Its B movie sci fi horror, and as such its script was fine.

"Fiery the angels fell; deep thunder rolled around their shores; burning with the fires of Orc"

[–] cadenbt 10 years ago

Even the characters in Alien knew better than to bring alien life into their ship. There was a whole plot point about one of the characters letting it in precisely because they wanted it to infect the crew in order to bring the aliens back to Earth.

They never let any aliens into their ship or lab in this movie. The first guy to get infected happened outside when he fell into a crevice. Then the zombified human walked back to base and let himself in. I don't understand your complaints.

But that's the difference between good screenwriting and bad.

Well do you understand the difference between paying attention and not paying attention?

[–] squiike 10 years ago

I fully agree with OP on this one.
I hate it when scriptwrighters just cant figure out a way to, say, get zombies into a spaceship, so they just write-in horrible decision-making.

It's insulting the viewers intelligence.

For example, from the top of my head; Tron and Prometheus.
That could have been two great movies. But instead, when i left the theatre, i felt like i had been talked to like i was a 6 year old kid. One-way conversation for nearly 2 hours.

[–] georgegliddy 10 years ago

WELL SUCH MOVEIS WAS CONFUSING 2 ME I H8 TRON BCOS IT WAS 2 HARD 2 C????

[–] tamtle 10 years ago

I'm glad many are agreeing with me on this. Production wise, this film is top notch, so I would not consider this a b-horror film. Also, I think Live Schreiber is a fine actor, one of the best, along with his wife, Naomi. He would not sign up for a B-film. so it just comes down to bad or no research. I'm sure he was asking the same questions I was. For those who don't agree, I just don't think they get it. I want more films like this, but I just want better research of characters.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] MarshallStax 10 years ago

I totally agree with the OP. Decent actors, good production design and mostly-good visual effects simply cannot make up for a poorly-conceived "zombies on Mars" fantasy film. Notice I didn't call it sci-fi. This is science fiction the way "Star Wars" and "The Avengers" are science fiction. As in , not.

All Art is pretense.

[–] tamtle 10 years ago

i'm just amazed myself how the script got the green light. this is year 2013, not 2005, so there is no excuse. this day in time, there are so many positions created on the production crew that someone, like an executive producer or script supervisor, had to scream "this script needs more work, or it's going to tank and we'll be so embarrassed and it won't make any money back." Comon, this is 2014, don't try to pull the rug under us with crappy writing, thinking we, the viewers, don't know any better and that you can get away with it. that's why I got so mad watching it.