“Mars Assaults!” is one severely unusual film. It is each impressed by a set of graphically violent collectible playing cards (suppose “Rubbish Pail Children” with disembowelment) and Nineteen Fifties science fiction. Whereas the alien invasion tales of the Nineteen Fifties had been unsubtle allegories for fears of communism, they had been additionally fairly tame and adopted the principles of the Hays Code, guaranteeing that “good morals” and such prevailed. The heroes can be heroic, the villains can be defeated, and America would appear like the guardians of the world. “Mars Assaults!” shouldn’t be that film. This can be a film the place an alien kills the president’s canine and the First Woman (Glenn Shut) throws the poor Golden Retriever’s cranium on the alien in self-defense.
“Mars Assaults!” is star-studded and lured in audiences with a forged that features Pam Grier, Annette Benning, Jack Nicholson in a double function, Martin Quick, Michael J. Fox, Danny DeVito, and even lounge singer Tom Jones as himself. Mixed with a PG-13 score and commercials that performed up the silliness of the Martians, it appeared like a humorous, barely satirical tackle one thing like “Independence Day.” This was 1996, in spite of everything, and other people had been nonetheless residing in a bubble of optimism that would not be popped till simply after the flip of the century. Burton’s cynicism was far an excessive amount of for audiences who thought the longer term was going to be vibrant, however on reflection, he was simply mentioning the inevitable fact that people, even/particularly those in energy, will be exceptionally silly.