Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Mars Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 19, 2017

The Martian seems to have made the once Angry Red Planet seemingly a little less threatening, which is actually kind of ironic when one considers the travails astronaut Mark Whitney experienced in trying to survive in a notoriously hostile environment. Earth’s “relationship” with Mars has been one of intrigue from the get go, no doubt fostered by the fact that Mars is our “closest” planetary neighbor, but of course writers in various media have long portrayed the rust colored orb as housing aliens who may not have our best interests at heart. H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds is probably the best remembered of these efforts, but all sorts of science fiction films have portrayed Mars as even less hospitable than Whitney found it to be in the acclaimed book and film. There’s little doubt that The Martian sparked the National Geographic miniseries Mars, a kind of uneasy hybrid of traditional NatGeo informational science courtesy of a glut of talking heads and “real life” video and a fictionalized element that follows the story of Man’s first attempt to colonize the planet circa 2033. While the overall feel of Mars is therefore kind of unavoidably heterogeneous, as with many other “scripted” documentaries, there’s certainly fascinating information to be had here, but some may wonder why it had to be presented in such a ping ponging way, with current day events like the exploits of Space X playing out in contrast to the sometimes kind of florid dramatics of the fictionalized tale of the Daedelus some sixteen years in the future.

While I was a bit too young at the time to really remember some of the earliest exploits of Man’s first forays into “space” (or at least extremely high altitudes), I definitely remember the Moon landing, which was one of the most exciting events of my childhood. My family was in fact on vacation during the early part of the Apollo 11 mission and I remember to this day urging my Dad to drive just a little bit faster to get us home so that we could see the actual landing on television, which we managed to do. There was an ebullient spirit shared nationally during that time which is a little hard to describe in our fractious environment today, one that seemed to suggest that despite our differences, we were finally technologically astute enough to pull something outlandish like this off. “One giant leap for Mankind” indeed. Mars tries somewhat fitfully to reinvigorate that spirit, offering the blandishments of President Kennedy back in the day reminding us that we were pushing into space “not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard” and offering brief montages of various NASA missions.

The miniseries actually seems to be plying a purely fictional storyline for a while at least, despite these brief intrusions of actual history. Ben Sawyer (Ben Cotton) provides some early narration, detailing the fact that NASA has joined with a number of other national space administrations to create an international space aggregation that, along with private enterprise, has finally pushed ahead with plans to send explorers to Mars to begin a colonization effort, something that Sawyer will be mission commander for. There’s some frankly kind of clunky narrative introduced throughout the early going of Mars where various personal stories are introduced and supposed character beats are provided, something that may tend to actually sidetrack the miniseries’ most compelling aspect, which is the technology needed not just to get the astronauts to Mars, but to help them survive and maybe even flourish once they’re there.

That kind of melodramatic aspect (one that only increases as the fictionalized elements move forward) makes the first interstitial featuring a current day talking head seem weirdly out of place, though it’s in these interview segments that Mars delivers some of its most compelling information. A rather wide array of experts including everyone from Elon Musk to the always entertaining Neil deGrasse Tyson pop up at regular intervals providing background and context for what it’s going to take to get Man to Mars, and science geeks will no doubt enjoy a lot of this information, even as many of them may be rolling their eyes at the fictionalized exploits of the Daedalus crew.

Without posting any outright spoilers, it’s perhaps indicative of some of the narrative shortcomings of Mars that there’s little if any emotional impact when a series of disasters strikes the crew at various points. The fact that these supposedly intrepid explorers are of course risking life and limb is undeniable, but in a way a florid dramatization like this may strike some as actually undercutting the actual danger that real life astronauts are going to be exposed to (if and?) when Man finally attempts to get to Mars. When one contrasts this fictionalized aspect with some of the real life issues faced by heroes like Scott Kelly, something that Mars gets into in one of its more interesting sequences, there’s little comparison—the real life sequences have a more visceral impact virtually every time.

The miniseries does boast a rather impressive physical (and/or CGI) production, with decently realistic sequences set on board the Daedalus and, later, on Mars itself. The fictional element’s “look” has obviously been highly influenced by The Martian (as can clearly be seen in some of the screenshots accompanying this review), with some individual shots looking like they in fact could have been lifted directly from the film. But again and again it’s the current day scientists and explorers who provide the most riveting information. As odd as it might sound, this is one miniseries that might have benefitted from a kind of “reverse seamless branching”, where viewers could choose to skip the fictional parts and stick to the facts and only to the facts.

Mars Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mars is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of National Geographic and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The bulk of this presentation, whether the "futuristic" elements set in 2033 and following years, or the current day interview segments, look nicely sharp and well detailed. The fictional elements are often graded in the slightly brown-red color that was also part and parcel of The Martian, but detail levels routinely remain rather high throughout. As might be expected, some of the CGI, both in terms of animated explanations and especially in terms of some of the backgrounds in the fictional elements, can look slightly soft. The miniseries also has its fair share of archival video that is understandably in various states, with some older pieces looking fairly raggedy when compared to the modern day elements.

Mars Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mars features an at least occasionally nicely immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that receives some energy courtesy of well placed isolated effects during many of the Mars set sequences. Expected elements like blast offs also provide occasional bursts of LFE. Otherwise, though, this tends to be at least somewhat tamped down, especially with regard to the current day interview segments, which obviously don't provide the same opportunities for fantastic surround activity. One way or the other, though, fidelity is fine throughout the presentation and other than some slight boxiness in some of the archival audio, no real issues of any kind to report.

Mars Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Mars (1080p; 47:17) is a very interesting piece that documents a number of elements like how certain shots were done or the future world's production design. Among the interview subjects is Ron Howard, who Executive Produced the series.


• Before Mars - A Prequel (1080p; 33:00) provides some backstory for the fictional element of the miniseries.


• Before Mars Behind the Scenes (1080p; 2:28) is a brief making of EPK.


• Getting to Mars (1080p; 13:51) takes a more "traditional" NatGeo approach by offering purely scientific data on technologies that will be required.


• Living on Mars (1080p; 10:26) does much the same service regarding what we're going to do once we get there.


• More Mars (1080p; 10:29) is an aggregation of short pieces dealing with various subjects like how the planet actually formed.


• Behind the Scenes (1080p; 14:38) has some good candid footage and offers more Ron Howard interviews.


• Cast and Crew Interviews (1080p; 25:06) of course raises the question, "Wait a minute -- isn't the cast the crew on this miniseres?" Joking aside, this features more Ron Howard interviews.

All of the supplements are included on Disc Three of this three disc set.

Mars Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A year before that aforementioned Moon Landing 2001: A Space Odyssey opened in 1968 to the delight and/or consternation of audiences, but one thing everyone shared is how far away 2001 seemed in 1968. That was a 33 year difference (for those of you not excellent in "instant math"), while the difference between 2016 (when a lot of the current day information on Mars is presented) and 2033 (the fictional elements) is obviously only 17, which means there's not really that much time until all of the predictions shown in the miniseries will either come to pass or seem like quaint vestiges of someone's over amped imagination. While Mars has excellent information galore, I continually wondered just how necessary the fictional elements in this piece really were. Taken as a whole, though, this release offers excellent technical merits and some appealing supplements. Recommended.