Red Planet - Arrow Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Earth is dying, and our last resort is to make a new home for our species on Mars. For twenty years, a terraforming initiative has been underway on the red planet (hey, that’s the name of the movie!), but sensors indicate that oxygen levels have been rapidly decreasing, pushing back plans for occupation by decades if these trends continue. And so, a team of experts is assembled to head to Mars and find out what is happening and to see if it can be fixed.

The team is led by the no-nonsense Lieutenant Commander Kate Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss), along with a colorful group of other colorful characters. Val Kilmer plays Robby Gallagher, an arrogant playboy whose arrogance is earned because he knows his stuff. Tom Sizemore is Dr. Quinn Burchenal, a geneticist with a keen eye for observation when things are amiss. Benjamin Bratt is Lieutenant Ted Santen, the pilot set to lead the team to the planet’s surface. And Simon Baker is Dr. Chip Pettengill, a terraforming specialist, who, with any luck, can figure out what has happened to the oxygen-producing algae that’s supposed to be covering Mars, but appears to have vanished without a trace.

En route to the rendezvous point, a gamma-ray burst from a large solar flare violently knocks the ship off course. In a split-second decision, the men of the mission abandon ship in a shuttle that takes them to the surface of Mars, while Bowman remains aboard the ship. The film cuts back and forth between locations, each representing a scenario rife with danger, and each character has to figure out ways to stay alive. Bowman must contend with a broken ship, isolating fires, and making repairs, while the men below must find a way back to the ship as oxygen reserves begin to run low.

Every few years, you’ll see a pair of nearly identical movies, produced by rival studios. 1995 had Braveheart vs Rob Roy. 1998 had Armageddon vs Deep Impact. And 2000 had Red Planet vs Mission to Mars. Red Planet is unfortunately not entirely successful, and it’s a shame, because when it works, it works amazingly well. There’s a great movie under the surface of Red Planet, but the finished product is a messy, ambitious one that never quite lands. It’s refreshing to see a big-budget, special-effects-laden picture dedicated to problem-solving and critical thinking. These characters must intelligently devise ways to get themselves out of a corner, not just shoot their way out. While the film isn’t exactly scientifically accurate, it’s smartly designed so that our characters must rely on their brains instead of brawn.

Where Red Planet is most frustrating is in how many ideas it has, without knowing exactly how to juggle them. Any one of the issues plaguing our team of astronautical engineers would have been enough for one movie, but Red Planet decides to cram them all in. Isolated on an alien planet, with no way to get home? Check. Malfunctioning, killer robot has turned against its masters and is now hunting them? Check. Alien bugs that have developed a taste for human blood? Check. One of our crew members snapped and is now a murderer? Oh, geez… check on that, too. Just when one of these threads becomes interesting, it’s abandoned for another plotline, so nothing ever has the room to breathe.

When Red Planet was released, it was met with terrible reviews, awful box office, and a lackluster audience reaction. I think the years have been kind to Red Planet. Watching it today, it’s nowhere near as bad as its reputation; it’s just frustratingly uneven, with some boneheaded plotting decisions. There are some great sequences, great technical craft in its production, and the cast really gives it their all. In another life, Val Kilmer would have gotten the success he deserved as a leading man.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Red Planet crash-lands onto 4K UHD Blu-ray from Arrow Video in a single-disc release. New artwork from Matt Griffin adorns the cover, with a reversible sleeve containing original cover artwork on the other side. Inside the case is an illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Mark A. Altman.

Red Planet’s narrative is split into two parts: The action in the stranded vessel orbiting Mars, and the stranded scientists on the planet. Each part is given its own unique look: The orbiting vessel is complexly lit, with the occasional lens flare, and deep, beautifully saturated colors. The planet’s surface during the day is monochromatic, an orangey-red, while nighttime sequences gleam with a sky full of stars. Screen legend Peter Suschitzky (The Empire Strikes Back) served as the cinematographer and does terrific work here. The film was scanned in 4K from its original camera negative and graded in Dolby Vision HDR. The results are excellent. Some bad CGI aside, Red Planet is very pretty picture; this transfer does good by it and the work of the original production crew.

The sole audio option on this disc is a 5.1 surround mix, encoded in DTS-HD MA, and it’s awesome. Early on in the film, a ship flies over our perspective camera, with action beginning in the rear of the soundstage, making its way to the front, with pinpoint precision - it actually gives a sense of movement through a space beyond your home theater, office, or room. While bombastic effects such as these are rarer in this story, ambient activity is at a nearly constant level, with a whistling, whipping wind on the planet’s surface. In the ship, the computer’s voice surrounds the listener through the entirety of the soundstage. This being a talky picture, about scientists solving problems, dialogue clarity is favored throughout.

Arrow has treated fans to a few new features for this release, including interviews and a video retrospective looking back on the film. There are also some legacy features included, such as deleted scenes and a theatrical trailer.

• The Martian Chronicles (HD 21:51) - Interview with visual effects supervisor Jeffrey A. Okun
• Suit Up (HD 10:45) - Interview with helmet and suits designer Steve Johnson
• Angry Red Planet (HD 18:42) - A visual retrospective with film critic Heath Holland
• Deleted Scenes (HD 14:24)
• Theatrical Trailer

Red Planet is perfectly decent popcorn entertainment. It’s an admirable effort, one that embraces the idea of some sort of grounded, semi-realistic look at what travel to Mars may look like in a not-too-distant future. The story becomes a bit muddled as it goes along, as it throws far too many threats and dangers our way, bringing them into the plot and dropping them with a casualness that never allows these threats to feel like anything other than just ideas. Arrow’s release looks and sounds great, with a handful of new special features that take a look inside its production history and legacy. Red Planet is Worth a Look.