Any movie that makes my jaws clench and my temples burn will find me thrilled. This happens when the movie is suspenseful, challenging, or targets primal fears such as loneliness, despair, the unknown, or death. John Carpenter knows his trade, and how to enhance these aspects. That's not to say that I consider all of his movies perfect. Genius and flawless ain't the same thing. He has made his fair share of "mistakes", like They Live (a dull, slow, pointless and poorly acted sci-fi thing), Escape from L.A. (a shameless cash-rehash of Escape from NY) or Elvis (Kurt Russell may be a nice Mac but he sure as hell ain't Presley). But, as true geniuses do, somehow his brilliance will always shine through, no matter how crappy the outcome. And when he's good, he's unsurpassed, evidence of which is amply displayed in Halloween, In The Mouth Of Madness and, most notably, his much overlooked masterpiece Prince Of Darkness. His imagery, narrative pacing, shock dosage, suspense building and, last but not least, his scores are, arguably, among the best you will find out there. Ghosts Of Mars falls right between his worst and his best efforts.

The movie is about Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge), a Martian police lieutenant on dope. She is apprehended as the sole soul on a ghost train after the little platoon she was part of was dispatched to retrieve the red planet's most wanted criminal, James "Desolation" Williams (Ice Cube). While being interrogated, she reports her previous whereabouts, seen in flashbacks. In fact, the whole movie appears in flashback, and sometimes there's even flashbacks within flashbacks. When the team was out to get Williams, they came across mine workers who were possessed by Martian spirits, accidentally freed on an archaeological excavation. A lot of fighting of the martial arts kind ensues, and I'm not giving anything away that the movie already doesn't right at the beginning when I tell you that Mel is the only trooper to make it back to base. You'll have to see for yourself, though, to figure out what exactly happened, and how, and whether or not Desolation makes it.

The movie contains a lot of Carpenteresquities, if that's a word (probably not). Moving a criminal as a leitmotiv comes right out of Assault From Precinct 13. The flashbacks are executed in essentially the very same way as In The Mouth Of Madness. And, of course, being a John Carpenter movie, there's an omnipresent sense of desolation.

Ghost Of Mars has more than its fair share of flaws. Somehow, Mars has an atmosphere that is, to a certain extent and with the help of "breather-glasses", breathable. Evidently, Carpenter tried to work his way around the fact that Mars hardly has any atmosphere at all. He also left the fact that this planet's gravitation is just one quarter of the Earth's unresolved - a fact that, as far as I know, every film set on Mars disregards. In this particular case however, I consider this a flaw because most of the quantum mechanical subtext in Prince Of Darkness is accurate so Carpenter knows how to handle science when he's making a movie. Furthermore, Henstridge may be hot (and androgenic) in her black leather tights, but she's also wooden. Streetwise Ice Cube is not very believable at all (a NYC ghetto gangster on Mars, 200 years from now?). Outright aggravating was the film's short and silly "let's kick some ass" epilogue which damn nearly ruined the whole movie for me.

This movie's got a lot going for it as well, though. It features a heavy metal score, written by Carpenter and performed by himself with the band Anthrax and guitar virtuoso Steve Vai. Adding a metal score to a movie is nothing new in itself but it really adds a dimension here. The "Ghosts Of Mars" are Marilyn Manson-esque, but their makeup and decking are fine. The action sequences, and there are many of them, are nicely done. Lights, colouring and camera movement are superb. And, of course, the "Carpenter touch" is there, whatever that tells you.

The movie got a lot of bad press and, to an extent, for good reason. It's flawed, both script-wise and acting-wise. Also, I think it would have benefited from a straightforward chronological structure. However, it still has enough qualities to provide some 90 minutes of thrilling entertainment. John Carpenter has, and, considering his talents, should have, done much better. But there's enough left in this movie not to entirely burn it into the ground. Ghosts Of Mars is a mediocre flick but falls just within the scope of acceptibility.