Mission to Mars

Just a couple of remarks after viewing this 2000 movie, which I believe came out while I was recovering from a heart problem.

It is a pretty engaging techno-thriller, well-paced and competent in its editing.  Director Brian De Palma was skillful in using his cast, playing off  Gary Sinise's  rather wooden, soldierly tendencies against the emotionalism of his younger counterpart Jerry O'Connell and the always-reliable Don Cheadle, who provides depth of representation as the marooned survivor of the first unfortunate mission.  Tim Robbins provided more relief as a master of expression beyond the script, especially in the scenes where he sacrifices himself to save the other members of the rescue mission after the explosion of their spaceship.  

These comments hold true for most of the film, up until its rather disastrously incongruous ending.  Just at the moment when the discovery of an extraterrestrial civilization should provide a jolt of eerie drama, Sinise goes nearly catatonic and a Disneyesque music swells up that could have been out of Bambi.  Perhaps De Palma was powerless to exclude these out-of-place franchise elements from his movie -- I am hopeful that this was the case, because it was a colossal let-down in what was otherwise a creditable, if less than brilliant, example of cinema.  Or perhaps it was just bound to happen in a movie intended to promote an amusement park attraction and rake in secondary revenue.  At any rate, it sadly detracts from what could have been a high moment for sci fi and for De Palma.