Since its initial discovery by ancient Egyptian astronomers, Mars has been an object of astral wonder and fascination. Within the past century, Hollywood’s obsession with the red planet has produced a considerable of amount movies and television programmes devoted to it with undeniably mixed results. In Mars in the Movies: A History, former NASA employee and magazine editor Thomas Kent Miller sifts through the celluloid output, closely examines 98 films, television movies and direct-to-video titles, and in the process, pens the ultimate, 292-page love letter to an often-overlooked sci-fi sub-genre.
Rather than discuss the works in chronological order, Miller organizes his chapters thematically and covers such topics as The State of Mars Cinema Before 1950, Voyages to Mars, Invasions from Mars and Inhabited Mars. A standalone chapter is devoted to the seminal 1950 film Destination Moon and another examines lesser known interpretations of The War of the Worlds (H. G. Wells). He reserves later chapters for slapstick comedies, parodies and satires, and concludes with an examination of six works slated for release after he had completed the bulk of his work on the manuscript.
Within each chapter, Miller’s entries are formatted to include concise technical information (film studio, cast, crew, etc.); snippets of positive and negative reviews from a variety of film critics; straightforward, non-biased summaries; and commentary composed of trivia, as well as the author’s opinions and critical assessments of the film. Make no mistake, Miller is authoritative on this topic and it is refreshing to read his insightful comments and, in some cases, his second opinions after re-watching certain works. For instance, he includes two separate reviews of The Martian (Ridley Scott 2015), one for the two-dimensional theatrical release and one for the three-dimensional home viewing.
Over 65 black and white illustrations, including movie posters, half sheets and film stills are peppered throughout the softcover work and, at times, this reviewer selfishly wished that some of the wackier film posters from the 1950s had been reproduced in full colour.
Miller rounds out the book with three appendixes detailing animated works, television anthology series, and a final chronological listing of all of the movies contained within the book. He also includes a comprehensive bibliography of books and magazine articles followed by a listing useful internet sites for further reading. A detailed and well-organized index completes the work.
In terms of usefulness, Mars in the Movies would make an excellent addition to the science fiction and/or film section of any reference collection. Since it is written by a fan, for other fans of the genre, the easy-to-read format is suitable for academic, public and even high school libraries. While there are other reference works currently on the market devoted to sci-fi films, Keep Watching the Skies (Warren, 2010) and Top 100 Sci-Fi Movies (Gerani, 2011) both come to mind, there is not one that is singularly devoted to the subject of movies about Mars. Miller’s book would serve as a compliment to both of these and to other, more generalized film reference works like the annually published VideoHound’s Golden Movie Retriever or Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide which ceased publication in 2015.
