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Expectations are a bitch. Christmas 1996 was when Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! was released. The Summer of 1996 was dominated by Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day, which helped revive big-budget alien invasion disaster movies. It was a phenomenon, and by Christmas 1996, out on VHS. With it so fresh in people’s minds, I’m not sure the B movie satire of Mars Attacks struck a chord with audiences who did not see it in droves. It was considered a box office bomb with the production budget with marketing costs added, making it nearly $100 million to make and grossing a worldwide total of $101.4 million. Reviews were not great either, earning 56% on Rotten Tomatoes. The critics’ consensus is: “Tim Burton’s alien invasion spoof faithfully recreates the wooden characters and schlocky story of cheesy ’50s sci-fi and Ed Wood movies — perhaps a little too faithfully for audiences.”
For Tim Burton, this capped an end to a winning streak that began in 1985 with Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and commenced through hits like Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Ed Wood. The last film Ed Wood (Burton’s best overall work), bears mentioning because Mars Attacks can be seen as his tribute to Ed Wood after making a biopic about the Plan 9 From Outer Space director. Many of the negative reviews disparagingly mention this. However, while I’m sure Ed Wood was still fresh in Burton’s mind, there’s more of an anarchic sensibility with Mars Attacks that comes from the trading cards (which proved controversial in the early 60s depicting graphic violence and sexuality so in many ways the film is tamer) and also by the fact Burton fashioned an “anti-blockbuster.” That’s right, Mars Attacks, in many ways, an affront to blockbuster filmmaking at the time and cheerfully plays with the idea of skewering those in power.
Mars Attacks tells a relatively simple story of, you guessed it, Martians invading Earth. The action revolves around a whole host of characters in this A-list ensemble, including Jack Nicholson’s dual role as President of the United States and flamboyant casino operator Art Land. Glenn Close plays the President’s Pat Nixonish wife, with Natalie Portman outstanding as the President’s deadpan daughter who always looks like she’s just awoken from a nap. Other characters include talk show host Nathalie Lake and her boyfriend, news reporter Jason Stone played by Michael J. Fox. The President’s science advisor Dr. Kessler played by Pierce Brosnan, ends up having a rather bizarre relationship with Nathalie after they are both abducted by Martians and heads get placed on dogs.
The characters with some moral fiber are played by Tom Jones playing…Tom Jones. Jim Brown plays a washed-up boxer Byron Williams, a casino worker now who is trying to get back to his family in DC led by his wife, played by Pam Grier. Annette Benning is Barbara, Art Land’s hippie wife, who is also a friend of Byron’s and helps lead the charge even though she’s genuinely goofy. Elsewhere Lukas Haas plays Richie, a donut shop employee in Nevada who watches as his more heralded brother (Jack Black in an early role) goes off to meet the Martians and ends up getting raygunned on live television. Richie is probably the most heroic character in the story as he cares about protecting his grandma (a hilariously memorable Sylvia Sidney).
There’s great fun the film has in skewering its A-list cast. The bigger the star, the dumber the character they play. Both of Jack Nicholson’s characters die in the movie. His President is a buffoon who constantly makes the wrong decisions. Casino mogul Art Land is equally as ridiculous, at one point planning to throw a big gathering for the Martians when they arrive in Vegas. Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Martin Short (who has a spectacularly weird scene trying to seduce an undercover Martian), Danny De Vito, Rod Steiger, Paul Winfield, and Jack Black (who was not a big star at the time), all meet their demise in spectacularly hilarious fashion.
The film is a satire, first and foremost, before anything science fiction action related. There are scenes of destruction in Mars Attacks but nothing approaching the level of Independence Day. The scenes of destruction played for terror in Jurassic Park, Independence Day, or Spielberg’s later War of the Worlds is played for laughs in Mars Attacks. Then again, Mars Attacks is the anti-Independence Day. You almost get the feeling Tim Burton is rooting for the Martians because most human characters are so utterly hopeless. There are no thrilling action sequences. There is no jingoistic “this day is our Independence Day!” moment from the President as the world rallies around America and defeats the Martians. The Martians in the film are defeated accidentally. Their brains unexpectedly explode when they hear Florence’s record of Slim Whitman’s “Indian Love Call,” revealing their only weakness.
Subverting expectations is something Tim Burton has had experience with in the past. Indeed Batman Returns, released four years earlier, subverted expectations of a Batman film. That allowed Tim Burton to be more Tim Burton after 1989 hit the first film. The result was a more mixed response from fans. Mars Attacks is Tim Burton at the height of his powers, and what he did with that was give a giant middle finger to the whole blockbuster process. What’s interesting is he does it with gleeful passion, no less than the cheerful passion on display by Johnny Depp in Ed Wood. The humor is borderline gallows humor, borderline cruel in general, but if you’re in the right mood for it, it’s pretty funny. Another thing is the special effects have aged quite well as well. It was early CG use for Tim Burton, who initially wanted to do the Martians in stop motion.
I’ve always been a fan of Tim Burton, although I feel like now he’s kind of a dispassionate caricature of himself. The sheer love of filmmaking is no longer coming across as it did in earlier Burton films, including Mars Attacks, which is full of cheerful macabre. It was a victim of coming out at the wrong time and place. America was in the mood for jingoistic blockbusters like Independence Day and went to the movies to feel good and be entertained. This was like a goofily cruel slap to the face to movie audiences. It almost punishes the audience for even thinking about caring about the major stars and the characters they play in the film. Perhaps Burton overestimated the audience would be on his humor level. However, Mars Attacks lives on and has become a cult film that, unlike Independence Day and some 90s blockbusters, has aged well.
