Crimson Force (2005)

Just perfect...

Good concept, poorly executed.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The "science" is whimsical.The "plot" is early James Bond.The "effects" are bargain basement.The "dialog" is pedestrian. (The bad guys say things like, "...this planet you call Earth...")The "characters" are stereotype.The "actors" were clearly not enthused.The "sets" are 1958 (or very very early Dr. Who).Through the first 5 minutes I thought it might be tongue-in-cheek; I'd just seen Mars Attacks and thought I'd stumbled on a farce night. I was waiting for a good laugh. But the joke wore off very quickly. Once I realized SOMEBODY had taken this seriously, I was amazed that real, American money had been thrown at this. (I hope it was Canadian...) A complete waste of time.

What an absolutely horrible, misguided movie. Clearly, the writer was trying to take pieces of Mission to Mars, and Stargate, and trying to throw something together to pay the rent.The story is lame, the acting is non existent.Why does C Thomas Howell continue to do this kind of garbage.He may not be 'A List', but he is better than this nonsense.There are a couple of passable 'not so special' effects, but that's about it.I for one would be thrilled to see SciFi go back to airing old "B" flicks from the 50's, and maybe some more MST3K

Don't accuse me of expecting "Chinatown" here, because I already know the Sci-Fi Chanell has limited means. That said, limited means are no reasonable excuse for limited imagination or vision.So, it's the future again and one of the not so friendly corporations that control Earth has sent a mission to Mars (there have been quite a few if those lately) to find an everlasting and inexpensive power source. Naturally they crash land in an almost half-exciting, almost well-executed scene which displays good planning ruined by the usual weak CGI. Soon the crew start to die and we find out that one of the crew is a government spy and that Mars is not a dead planet.Every movie this network makes is either a format genre flick we've seen a million times before or a blatant rip-off of a popular film. At first, "Crimson Force" looks like it's going to be an "Alien" rip-off with shades of "Total Recall". But then the crew enter a "pyramid" (quotes because it has five sides) and get caught up in a power struggle between the ruling classes of Mars's surviving inhabitants. I think we were meant to be reminded of "Dune", but since the sets are so obviously small, the costumes so inexpensive, and the population so sparse, it reminds one more of a sadder incarnation of the 30s "Flash Gordon" serials. The way the second half plays out you'll likely wish they'd just finished ripping off "Alien" and been done with it.To pad the running time (since the Martian plot is not all the complicated as it's written), our pretty-boy hero Ambrose is given flashbacks which explain why he's conflicted about working for the corporation, which in turn are a set-up to a typical made-for-TV character choice. The results aren't exactly deep. Most of the characters come with a whole two dimensions, including C. Thomas Howell's unlikeable Captain, the two "babes", the guys with accents, and the single non-white male.The film was not necessarily a bad idea. But an idea is only the beginning and a lot can (and did) go wrong along the way. Apart from the terrible effects and the constraints of the budget, there's the direction. This was advertised as some kind of epic, so the director tries to emphasize how big everything is (the spaceship, the pyramid, the interiors...), which unfortunately just reveals how small the sets really are. If they'd tried some location shooting for once the viewer might not suffer claustrophobia from watching these "epics".One star for an okay idea, a second for reminding me that I could do it better.

I had TIVO'ed this Sci-Fi Channel original movie, and only now just got around to watching it. I have to say, I really enjoyed it. The movie surprises you along the way. At first, you think it's just about astronauts going to Mars, but then it's about more. The movie has secret civilizations, conspiracy, action, twists, and lots of sci-fic lore.I loved the cross-cultural alliances that were built during the story. They were logical, and what's most interesting is that both sides were right. The villains (both human and alien) had a legitimate point of view, even though they were nasty. That theme reminded me of the similarly named "Crimson Tide" (admittedly, a much bigger "A" movie, but one in which both sides were "right" in their own way).The ending makes a strong statement about understanding your enemy and understanding that all people (um, species) have more in common than you might think.This movie was worth the TIVO hard drive space it took up over the last month!