Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

The Last Days on Mars Blu-ray Movie Review

We Have Met the Enemy and They Are Us

Reviewed by Michael Reuben February 28, 2014

Director Ruairí Robinson's debut feature, The Last Days on Mars, is a character drama disguised as science fiction. An animator whose 2001 short, Fifty Percent Grey, was nominated for an Oscar, Robinson was attracted to the script by Clive Dawson (based on a short story by British author Sidney J. Bounds) precisely because it was not about the wonders and mysteries of exploring outer space. It was about a weary group of scientists and technicians who have been away from home and family for a very long time and for whom the marvels of the Martian landscape long ago became a matter of routine. Like the crew of the Nostromo in Alien, all they want to do is get home.

It's hard for current viewers to appreciate, but thirty-five years ago Ridley Scott took the unusual step of casting Alien with serious actors who were either unknown (Sigourney Weaver) or had no association with sci-fi or creature features (John Hurt, Ian Holm and Tom Skerritt). The result was a dramatic intensity that allowed Scott to get away with allowing almost no screen time for his titular villain. (Seriously: Go back and count the number of seconds that the alien is on screen in the original film. Most of what you see is the cast reacting to it.) Robinson took the same approach, except that his story didn't have a villain comparable to the fearsome predator designed by H.R. Giger. The expedition in Robinson's film does find something hazardous, but the real dangers come from within. The key lies in the title's phrase "last days". Everyone is weary; most are disappointed that the mission hasn't produced better results; a few are still trying to make a name for themselves; and most have grown lax about safety procedures. Judgmental viewers might think to themselves, "Well, I wouldn't make that mistake", but who can say for sure?

In the near future, a research team of eight are completing a six-month deployment at the Tantalus Base on the surface of Mars. Their mission is to search for signs of life, past or present. At the end of the deployment, the lander, Aurora, will transport them to the orbiting base, from where they will begin the long voyage home.

Vincent Campbell (Liev Schreiber), the senior systems engineer, is ambivalent about their departure. Though eager to get home and see green grass and blue sky, Vincent has developed a secret case of claustrophobia at some point during this long-term mission, and the thought of a long journey home in what he calls "a floating coffin" terrifies him. The crew's psychological welfare officer, Robert Irwin (Johnny Harris, Welcome to the Punch), suspects there's something wrong but cannot get Vincent to open up. Rebecca Lane (Romola Garai, Atonement, The Hour and the BBC's Emma) is a biochemist who is the closest thing Vincent has to a friend on the crew; a professional in every way, Rebecca is a closed book to her colleagues, which is probably why she and Vincent understand each other so well.

The very opposite of a closed book is Kim Aldrich (Olivia Williams, Dollhouse and The Ghost Writer), a driven geologist who lets everyone know what she's thinking, even when they'd rather not hear it; she's furious to be leaving Mars without discovering anything important, thereby abandoning all the opportunities to make history to the team that will follow them. (Asked to list the ten things he will least miss about Mars, Vincent repeats: "Kim. Kim. Kim.") A second geologist, Marko Petrovic (Goran Kostic, In the Land of Blood and Honey), takes their failure to find anything more calmly than Kim, but on their last night he suddenly asks Capt. Charles Brunel (Elias Koteas) for permission to go out just before nightfall to check on a downed sensor. It's a breach of protocol, but Brunel is weary and allows Marko to depart, accompanied by junior technician Richard Harrington (Tom Cullen, Weekend), and to the great concern of the team's other junior technician, Lauren Dalby (Yusra Warsama).

In the final hours before departure on the Aurora shuttle, the team is shocked to discover that one among them has been doing independent research in secret, presumably hoping to claim sole credit for a discovery—and, indeed, something has been found: an ancient life form frozen below the planet's surface. But the hubris of working on one's own results in an accident, which is exactly what you don't want when dealing with an alien life form. Robinson has said that the films that inspired him, in addition to Alien, were Invasion of the Body Snatchers and John Carpenter's The Thing, but he might also have cited The Andromeda Strain.

Despite their training and experience, the team is unprepared for this turn of events, just as Vincent's many previous space flights did not prepare him for a deployment of such length. As events rapidly spiral out of control and the scientists in the group race to understand what they have encountered, both individuals and group cooperation begin to disintegrate under the pressure. An emergency call is dispatched for early evacuation, but there is serious doubt whether anyone can survive until the shuttle arrives.

Ever since Alien and The Thing, it has been almost impossible to impress audiences with a creature from outer space (unless it's done for laughs, as in the Men in Black series). Robinson is smart enough not even to try. Instead, he concentrates on the interpersonal dynamics among the Tantalus crew, especially Vincent and Rebecca, and he devotes most of his visuals to providing the characters with a believable Martian environment. The production shot in the deserts of Jordan, where the rock and mountain formations already looked like another world and, with digital enhancements guided by the latest photos from the Mars lander, become impressively convincing. When actors are running, jumping and interacting in a real space, the performances have a weight and credibility that's hard to manufacture in front of a green screen. In a story about character and relationships, that's more important than yet another alien.

The Last Days on Mars Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shot on film by cinematographer Robbie Ryan (Philomena), The Last Days on Mars has been heavily processed in post-production both to integrate the visual effects (broken down in the extras) and to supply the various red tints of the Martian environment. Magnolia Home Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray was presumably sourced from digital files, and it has the clean, detailed appearance one typically sees in Blu-ray images taken directly from a digital intermediate. The minutia of the production design, some of it practical and some created digitally, are clearly visible when light levels allow; in dark scenes, either during the planetary night or indoors when the power fails, the blacks are stable, so that the viewer sees only what is supposed to be seen from a flashlight or emergency beacon. The color palette for the interiors of Tantalus base is full of cool blues, grays and white, which establish the appropriate contrast with the reds of Mars. By design, however, the Mars of this film is not overly red. Robinson deliberately did not want the supersaturated redness of a film like Total Recall.

Despite the somewhat low average bitrate of 22.00 Mbps, compression artifacts were not an issue. The only visual anomaly was some occasional light banding at scene transitions.

The Last Days on Mars Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 track complements the film's visuals in a carefully modulated design that shifts between objective and subjective points of view. Vincent's nightmarish visions induced by stress provide some of the most intense sonic moments, which recede into the background as Vincent regains control. Various real events of similar violence and intensity—I cannot be more specific without spoilers—erupt with similar force and impact, although individual sounds are often deliberately obscure, because the crew frequently can't tell what is happening. Dialogue is always clear and generally centered, whether it is spoken in open air or over radio transmitters in space helmets. The score by Max Richter (Waltz with Bashir) is particularly distinctive because of its deliberate tempo and melancholy tone.

The Last Days on Mars Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of The Last Days on Mars (1080p; 1.78:1; 15:17): Robinson and the cast discuss the film's characters and themes. They also describes the challenges of filming in the hot Jordanian desert while wearing costumes designed to look like insulated space gear for the cold Martian surface.



• Analyzing the Visual Effects (1080p; 1.78:1; 6:00): This is an impressively comprehensive breakdown (without narration) of the many digital shots created by effects house Screen Scene, both to simulate the surface of Mars and to extend the interior sets.



• Behind the Scenes Comparisons (1080p; 1.78:1; 4:01): This extra shows specific shots being filmed, with the final version, as seen in the finished film, inset in a small window.



• AXIS TV: A Look at The Last Days on Mars (1080i; 2.35:1; 3:11): This is the standard AXIS TV promo, using excerpts from the interviews in "The Making of The Last Days on Mars".



• Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment: The disc includes trailers for Europa Report, Here Comes the Devil, Beyond Outrage and How I Live Now, as well as a promo for AXS TV. These also play at startup, where they can be skipped with the chapter forward button.



• BD-Live: As of this writing, attempting to access BD-Live gave the message "Check back later for updates".

The Last Days on Mars Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Because I'm a fan of well-crafted drama, I enjoyed The Last Days on Mars for what it is. Hardcore sci-fi fans are likely to be disappointed, especially if they expect a trip to Mars to yield new adventures in outer space, because what Robinson shows them are familiar human weaknesses intensified by a perilous environment. The creature feature crowd will be seriously disappointed, because what the crew of Tantalus discovers isn't that interesting in itself. It's how the crew handles it (or, more accurately, fails to do so) that makes the story worthwhile. Depending on where you fit on that spectrum of viewers, the film is recommended or not. The Blu-ray itself is certainly worthwhile.