Támadók a Marsról

After two years, I went back to the sci-fi theme that I saw in the original 1953 movie, and I must say that I did not find much justification for the creation of this remake. Tobe Hooper faithfully copies the plot premise of the original with great visual charm, but apart from numerous references to the original movie, it does not add anything new to the story, on the contrary, it faithfully preserves even the worst part of the movie (i.e. the ending). Perhaps the appearance of the Martians is the only thing that’s a little different, yet similarly as in the original movie, inadvertently funny. This movie, apparently very close to Hooper’s heart, caused a big headache for the production duo Golan/Globus at the time of its making. After watching this movie and also Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 from the same year, they began to tear their hair out regarding the crazy projects they had actually invested in. Of course, they never got anything back from their investment. Tobe Hooper did not really make much money for Cannon, but he created at least three relatively interesting and bizarre megalomaniac projects, at least one of which is top notch quality in my eyes. (2020.02.13)

Like his preceding Lifeforce, Hooper’s second project under his three-picture deal with Cannon Films is a fanboy effort by which the director fulfilled his dream of shooting a remake of his favourite film from childhood with the use of modern effects. Except for the effects, however, his reworking of the 1950s sci-fi flick Invaders from Mars unfortunately brings nothing new to the table. In terms of narrative, this literal copy retains not only the paranoid premise, but also the naïveté and half-baked nature of the original. By imaginatively interpreting and reworking the original, Hooper could have made a great contribution to the then-current trend of children’s films based on horror and science fiction. However, Hooper’s ambitions did not extend in that direction, which is confirmed by the involvement of a completely uncharismatic and hopeless actor in the lead role (it is no surprise that his career came to a halt after this). Following the example of 1950s trash flicks, Hooper didn’t care who played the hero, because neither the protagonist nor any motifs relating to childhood are of any concern here. The protagonist is merely a puppet in the hands of an ideologically tinged screenplay that seems out of place in the context of the 1980s. Like his other projects for Cannon Films, Hooper’s Invaders from Mars is fascinating as a completely unprecedented and unrepeated phenomenon in Hollywood cinema, when a talented filmmaker gains access to a generous production environment in order to please himself by making projects that do not in any way take any trends or commercial calculations into consideration. (2015.10.11)