Michael Scott
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Red Planet
Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:
Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:
It’s not uncommon for two films with very similar themes and styles to be released closely together by competing studios. Usually, it’s due to script writers hawking a film to multiple studios before landing on one who will give them the deal they want, and in the process, the competing studios cannibalize ideas and themes from the movie they turned down, eventually coming out with a near-identical picture (at least on the surface). The phenomenon is known as “twin films” and has usually garnered a sort of cultish reputation for having a certain amount of fan-based rivalry, especially when the two films are wildly different in reception and box office receipts. We’ve seen this time and time again with films like Showgirls/Striptease, The Arrival/Contact, Dante’s Peak/Volcano, and The Truman Show/Edtv. But it’s been years since I’ve seen 2000’s Red Planet, and I IMMEDIATELY remembered its twin film in the form of Mission to Mars. Both sci-fi films are based on a trip to Mars to discover new life, but with wildly different tones and audience reception. While Red Planet tries to be a film steeped in philosophical questions regarding faith and the universe, Mission to Mars actually ended up being the more intelligent film of the duo. Leaving Red Planet to get forgotten as a slightly cheesy Sci-fi that tries way harder than it should have to be something more than just a pulp fiction space movie.
Continuing with their contract with Warner Bro’s, Arrow Studios goes the extra mile and gives this middling turn of the century sci-fi thriller a fantastic boost up to 4K, with a wonderful transfer, some nice extras, but sadly the same “solid” audio track that we remember from Warner’s aging Blu-ray. But hey, it’s still nice to revisit one of Val Kilmer’s last big Hollywood films before he stepped back to take a break from the grind.
The year is 2056, and humanity is on the verge of extinction. The Earth is dying after having exhausted her natural resources, with oxygen depleting by the day. The only hope that our species has of continuing on is by colonizing Mars, and that is going to be no easy feat, considering that it’s notoriously been lifeless for millions of years. So, the only way forward is to spend years terraforming the planet with life, seeding the dead planet with vegetation in hopes of it creating a breathable atmosphere. And the plan seems to have worked, as NASA has detected millions of square miles of algae and other plant life creating an atmospheric layer on the red planet. Sending out a skeleton crew on an advanced spaceship to check it out after the oxygen readings suddenly drop, and the specialized scientists and engineers on board find a huge surprise waiting for them.
On the ground, things turn ugly, with limited time left on their oxygen tanks and tempers running high. A murder, a few missteps, and suddenly the remaining 3 men (Quinn, Robby, and Chip) stumble upon a bizarre discovery. It seems that despite the lack of plant life that mysteriously vanished, and despite the dipping oxygen readings they had from Earth’s sensors, the planet is rife with oxygen. They can breathe on the red planet without a problem. But despite that mystery, there are still more than a few obstacles before getting back to the ship. Mainly, the thread of their robotic surveillance drone AMEE, a combat drone turned scientific delivery service, is getting damaged during the landing and activating its dormant military protocols. Now it’s a game of cat and mouse as the 3 men struggle to get to an abandoned Russian shuttle craft a mile away while AMEE hunts them like prey. Oh, and we still have to figure out where all the oxygen is coming from without the vegetation.
Red Planet is kind of an interesting mess of a film, with a hodgepodge of various plot lines squished into one viewing experience. It tries a bit too hard to be a philosophical, introspective look at faith and the universe, but sadly gets sidelined by a multitude of side quests that really pull the film in different directions. The main story about the planet and its oxygen source plays out almost like a horror film, with the big reveal in the third act suddenly changing course on us. Especially after we spent over an hour dealing with a crash landing and running from a killer robot. THEN there’s the whole The Martian plot about getting the scientists home. It’s just a bit overstuffed with too short a run time, and not enough effort fully flesh out one or two of the sub-stories instead of trying to be everything for everyone. It’s not hard to see why Mission to Mars got a much better reception, even though Red Planet had a star-studded cast of anyone who was anyone in the last 90s and early 2000s. Carrie-Anne Moss was coming right off the incredible wave that was The Matrix, Tom Sizemore and Val Kilmer were both '80s and '90s legends, and Terence Stamp needs no introduction. Even Simon Baker was starting to make a name for himself back then, and Benjamin Bratt was not exactly a nobody either. But for some reason, the cast and the acting couldn’t make up for an overstuffed story and a cheesy voice-over narration that robbed the film of a lot of its more serious potential.
Rating:
Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence, brief nudity, and language
4K Video:
Video:
As usual, Arrow has given us some fairly detailed information on what was done to restore the film, with the information provided below.
1. The film was restored by Arrow Films and presented in its original 2.39:1 theatrical ratio with the same 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio track as before
2. The OCN was scanned at 4K/16 bit resolution by Warner Bro. ’ MPI production team, with Pixelogic reviewing and QC’ing the entire production.
And as usual, Arrow does a bang-up job with the 4K UHD disc itself. Peter Suschitzky’s cinematography is absolutely superb, with amazing color and palette changes that vary from the dusky 90s red of Mars, up to the steely blues and whites of the transport ship that got them there. Facial details and general clarity are unbelievable, handily outclassing the already good-looking Blu-ray that Warner put out back in 2011. Black levels and field of depth work hand in hand to craft some incredibly nuanced nighttime shots (especially when they’re huddling down for warmth with the ice storm above them). I saw no signs of major crush, nor artifacting at all, leaving us with a silky-looking environment that just screams detail. I will admit that 2000 era CGI for the fire in space and the blood looks a bit dated, but surprisingly AMEE looks and moves incredibly well for the time period (and makes me really miss the days of practical effects mixed with slight bits of CGI vs. the CGI over saturation that today’s effects market). The colors themselves also display a fairly wide and unique spread, ranging from the bright greens of the algae, the dusky reds of the planet, all the way down to neon blues and icy tones that permeate the nighttime periods on the dark side of the planet. It’s a fascinating juxtaposition of darkness and light, bright colors and grim shadows, all playing against each other to create a very unique and textured film.
Audio:
Extras:
• Suit Up, a brand new interview with helmet and suits designer Steve Johnson
• Angry Red Planet, a brand new visual retrospective with film critic Heath Holland
• Deleted scenes
• Theatrical trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matt Griffin
• Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Mark A. Altman
Final Score:
Despite all of its flaws, Red Planet is still a pretty fun sci-fi thriller, with a great cast who does their absolute best with the material at hand. Arrow once more has done a fantastic job at giving this a much-needed visual facelift in 4K UHD, and what seems (at least from my memory) the same 5.1 DTS-HD MA track from the Blu-ray. All in all, a fun pulpy watch that at least deserves a rental, and fans of the film should be very pleased with Arrow’s collector’s edition packaging. Decent Watch will be my final recommendation.
Technical Specifications:
Starring: Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tom Sizemore, Simon Baker,
Directed by: Antony Hoffman
Written by: Chuck Pfarrer, Jonathan Lemkin
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Arrow
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 106 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 18th, 2025
Recommendation: Decent Watch
