Mission to Mars / YMMV

Awesome Music: By Ennio Morricone, no less. While the music can sound at times like something out of a late 80s/early 90s made-for-television film, it is undeniably beautiful. Standouts include "Where?" and "A Heart Beats in Space".
Designated Hero: The Martians, for designing a password system that brutally murders you for answering incorrectly.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: It was nominated for a Razzie, holds a solid rating of 24% at Rotten Tomatoes, and was yet, for some reason, loved by French reviewers. Go figure.
Harsher in Hindsight: It's too bad that the real 2020 wasn't the tidy future with manned missions to Mars depicted by the film.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- A lone astronaut gets stranded on Mars without the means to contact the Earth and must survive for over a year until the next mission arrives and can take him back home. Had the film focused on this storyline instead of glossing it over in a narration, it might have been better received.
- Prometheus is a Darker and Edgier version of this film!
- Replace "Jim" with "Major Tom" and you have a more in-depth version of Peter Schilling's most well-known song.
Narm:
- The killer sand tornado that seems to "look around" left and right before looking down at the astronauts is a bit cheesy, the fact it then furiously roars with some audible Frank Welker stock monster roars doesn't help.
- The astronaut spinning until he's ripped apart by the twister can come off as unintentionally funny.
- At points the soundtrack sounds like a 1980-1990's TV show soundtrack.
- Although it's meant to be a poignant and emotional moment, Woody's head instantly freezing in space when he takes off his helmet resembles what Arnold does in that one episode of The Magic School Bus.
- While pretty impressive for a 2000 movie, some of the CGI effects don't hold up that well.
Nightmare Fuel:
- The deaths of the astronauts in the first mission. Ripped apart by a spinning vortex; helmet smashed in by flying debris — even the lone survivor was nearly suffocated by a rock slide!
- Woody's fate is nightmarish from both his and Terri's perspective: drifting away in space from the others helplessly, and on her part failing to save her husband from a few inches and having to witness him dying via intentional vacuum exposure.
Signature Scene:
- Whether one finds it disturbing or laughable, the "spinning to death inside the Martian twister" scene tends to leave an impression on many viewers.
- The "seeding of Earth" presentation, left by the Martians. It's very brief, but it's easily the most memorable element of the film.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: We're meant to feel bad for the tragic backstory of the Martians, but they still built that horrifying security system instead of doing something else that keeps intruders out without killing anybody. Luke's team didn't deserve to die.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: This film was inspired by the Disney theme park attraction of the same name so parents might think it's for kids due to its PG-rating. It should've been rated PG-13 at best due to the horrifying deaths of the astronauts at the beginning of the film, including one being ripped apart by a spinning vortex! ONSCREEN. WITH VISIBLE GORE. How the film got away with a mere PG rating (despite the fact the PG-13 rating was invented sixteen years prior at the time, and that one death being more violent than anything in the two films that inspired the rating) is anyone's guess.

YMMV / Mission to Mars

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