Just like my favorite director
Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton has invented his own genre, and same as Quentin
the best way to describe the genre is to simply say his name. If I was to
describe the movie “Beetlejuice” to someone who hasn’t seen it all I need to
say is “It’s a Tim Burton movie”. If I was a famous movie director I would take
that as a major compliment but at the same time I would be upset because that
would limit me to my own style. I like that Tim has his own style because I
know I can count on him to stick to it and if I ever want to see a “Tim Burton”
movie I can watch one.
The problem is that the style he
has just cannot fit into some genres like he wants them to. “Mars Attacks!” is
a terrible mess of a film that means well but fails even on paper. For starters
it is a parody film, a genre that has only been done right once with “Airplane”.
It then adds embarrassment to it by having such an enormous cast no one would
be able to handle. Watching the film is like watching a street performer juggle
too many bowling pins, he keeps dropping them and you feel sorry for him
because you know he is feeling embarrassed. It is truly a pity that such talents
as Jack Nicholson, Jack Black, and Michael J. Fox get wasted in a film that
looks like a stupid B movie that should have never existed.
From the opening credits you see
that there is an alien invasion with flying saucers. The Martians that attack
look too silly even for a parody. In fact I even remember a picture of one of
them being in one of my high school textbooks for some reason and when me and
my friend first saw it we laughed so hard that our teacher got pissed and
kindly asked us to shut the hell up. The plot then slowly evolves into a nonsensical
cocktail of uninteresting stories involving the president of the United States,
a talk show host falling in love with a scientist but getting her head stuck on the body of a dog, and a message towards the Martians
which was either mistranslated or the Martians didn’t care and attacked anyway.
Tim Burton is not particularly
known for being clever or witty with his films but he usually doesn’t dumb his
movies down either. This time he makes a movie that feels as if prolonged
exposure to it might cause a tumor. There might be a true sincerity in it in
that Tim honestly wanted to make a good homage to science fiction B movies but
it was a wrong choice from a director who I really admire and think that he is
capable of doing much better.
4/10
Although I am tempted to say “Batman”
I think his best film is “Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street” but
what do you think? Do you prefer something more like “Edward Scissorhands”? or
perhaps the darker “Sleepy Hollow”? Tell me in the comments below. Remember you
can comment whether you have an account or not. Please start leaving me some
comments, because they have been scarce.
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