DVD Review--INVADERS FROM MARS (1986)

Sooner or later, someone in Hollywood will remake not only every classic film that has been ever made, but every half-way decent film, too. The original 1953 INVADERS FROM MARS really isn’t a great piece of sci-fi, but it is regarded as a classic because of some of the magnificent images in the movie, e.g. the lights behind the hill with the fence and people being sucked by a swirling vortex into the ground. In the early 1980s, Tobe Hooper (of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE fame) set out to remake his favorite movie of all time, INVADERS FROM MARS.

The movie revolves around David Gardner (Hunter Carson). David loves astronomy. One night during a freak thunderstorm he thinks he sees a spaceship land not far from their house, just over a hill. He tells his parents about it, but they think he was just dreaming. However, David’s father, George (Timothy Bottoms), investigates and when he returns in the morning he is a different man. He tells David he was right, that there was something just over the hill but before he gets a chance to show David, the school bus arrives to take David to school. Later, David’s mother and school teacher start acting just as strange as his dad and David suspects that aliens are involved. After he catches his teacher secretly eating during a meal, he knows aliens have invaded and are taking over people’s bodies. He meets with the only person he feels he can trust, the school nurse, Linda Magnussen (Karen Black). Initially she doesn’t believe David, but does believe something is going wrong in his life. But after seeing the truth for herself, she sets out with David for a nearby military base for help.

When this version of INVADERS FROM MARS was initially released, it was panned by critics and bombed at the box office. People kept talking about how good the original was and that this movie just didn’t live up to it. I don’t think any of those people ever saw the original movie because other than some amazing visuals and some fine acting by Jimmy Hunt as David Maclean, the 1953 INVADERS FROM MARS isn’t that great of a movie. There’s really only one alien in that movie and the rest are a bunch of Martian/human hybrid mutants that are referred to as “moo-tants” (instead of “mew-tunts) and are portrayed by people in green makeup and rubber suits running around with their hands in a robotic positions. The budget was so low that the interior of the cave in the original was made from blown-up condoms that were painted over. It’s true that watching the original movie now, there is a certain charm to it that initial viewers of the remake might not have felt upon watching the remake.

Still, you can tell that Tobe Hooper was a major fan of the original movie because his version carefully replicates the best parts of that movie and sometimes the worst (including the terrible ending). However, he updates the movie with a more modern feel and also leaves his own special touch in a few places. The result is a fun little piece of sci-fi horror that is overall actually just as good if not a tad better than the original. It’s a mix of humor, sci-fi action, and horror that at times borders on campy, but is blended fairly well. Also, watching the movie over 20 years after its initial release, the remake has a certain charm to it to, though of a far different kind than the original.

That’s not to say INVADERS FROM MARS is a great movie, because it’s not. However, it is a fun one. It’s a movie that people would probably enjoy watching on a rainy day or late at night when they can’t get to sleep.

The extras on the DVD include an original publicity featurette, a sci-fi featurette, and the original theatrical trailer.

About the new STAR TREK & alternate timelines

I was excited to see STAR TREK. Even though I am much more of a Star Wars fan, I have become a fan of Star Trek and that franchise has been a part of the pop culture background for much of my life. The new STAR TREK is a great movie. It's got some fairly well developed characters, lots of action, vivid imagery, superb special effects, etc. Movie-goers seem to love it and many have been introduced to the characters of Kirk, Spock, etc for the first time. The studio, Paramount, loves it because the film will now allow them to "re-energize" their tent-pole franchise from the ground-up and they will make huge bank. I'll admit that as a movie, I enjoyed it. Yet, overall, I was severely disappointed because as a piece of storymaking, STAR TREK is a complete cop-out.

If you haven't seen the movie, beware that what might be considered spoilers are coming.

Almost the entire new STAR TREK film is set within an alternative timeline. Writers and actors like alternate timelines because it allows them to do things with characters that they normally couldn't do. In all honesty, alternate timelines are a complete cop-out and hugely dishonest. I can understand why actors enjoy it because if they've been acting in a series for several years a change of pace might allow them to display talent that they couldn't before. However, there's no excuse for writers. Alternate timelines are something that poor writers fall back upon because they're either too lazy or uncreative enough to stay true to a character's personality while keeping it interesting. It shows a complete and utter disregard for characters and the fictional universes they inhabit.

Basically, because of the new STAR TREK movie, nothing (and I mean nothing, no Next Generation, no Deep Space Nine, no Q, no Borg, nothing) exists from before. Five different television shows, ten movies, and a series of pseudo-canon novels have been completely eradicated. I mean, the entire planet Vulcan, which played huge part in the original series and movies has been destroyed. Everything Star Trek related for the next several years, perhaps decades, will be set within the new "alaternative timeline" of the new movie. That's not to say that Paramount won't go back to the original timeline at some point in the future, but the new Star Trek is all the rage and that's what will make them the most amount of money right now in the short term. The future has been postponed for a "new past". And there won't be going back to the original format for a very long time. In my opinion what J.J. Abrams and company have done is the equivalancy of what George Lucas did with Indiana Jones and the entire alien encounter in INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL.