Vintage

Ghosts of Mars is a mishmash of many movie genres: ghost, horror, zombie, martial arts, action, sci-fi, and thriller.  Did I miss anything?  It should be noted that the weakest of the genres mentioned would be a ghost flick.   Ghosts of Mars is no haunted house blanket grabber. It is more of space snore.  Yes, there is the word “ghosts” in the title and you do see some “mist” that passes for ghosts at points, but ghosts in this film serve more or less as a convenient hitching post to tether a Martian martial arts zombie extravaganza featuring a hot blonde (Natasha Henstridge) and popular gangsta rap artist (Ice Cube) in a good cop, bad cop action romp.  

Some have said this is the nadir of Director John Carpenter’s vast body of work.  I won’t protest.  Then again, it just might be cleverly hammy.  After all, it takes great skill—believe it or not—to deliberately make a classic, so-called, B-movie.  Just repeat the name of this film, “Ghosts of Mars.”  Can you really take it seriously?  Could John Carpenter not have smiled when he was writing this script with co-writer Larry Sulkis?  Still, we have to compare this film to the overall body of Carpenter’s work and well, if Ghosts of Mars is not his worst film, I am not sure what is.  

The story takes place in the latter part of the 22nd Century.  We find ourselves on a Mars that has been semi-colonized.  Unlike Los Angeles, Mars has breathable air and humans can walk about it without special protective suits.  I didn’t see any Walmarts, so maybe the future is not all that bad.  

Women run the planet Mars in the future.  We learn this through an onscreen overview of life on the red planet which tells us that the form of government is “matriarchal.” This really has no significance insofar as the plot is concerned.  I was curious how this came to be?  Did Oprah Winfrey buy Mars in the 21st Century?  The movie never explains.