From Alien to Event Horizon to Sunshine to Prometheus to this year's solid and smart Europa Report, films return again and again to the story of space exploration gone awry and the subsequent fight to survive waged by a small group of astronauts, and it is not hard to understand why. The isolation of space, so far from rescue, is a potent environment in which to stage stories of mystery and suspense The latest, very unspectacular entry is The Last Days on Mars. As a six-month period of research on the fourth planet from the sun comes to a close, one scientist quietly slips away to investigate a site where evidence of alien life may be found. He, of course, vanishes. The others, of course, search for him. Their search, of course, goes very, very wrong.

The best word to describe the film's various flaws: underdeveloped. Atmospheric early images of a desolate Jordan desert standing in for Mars arouse an excitement and fascination the film's storyline cannot match. At the end of the day, this is a rote zombie film and slasher, just one set on Mars, and there is a deflating sensation as one realizes the absence of quantifiable science-fiction imagination: of course virulent bacteria on the red planet turns people into...crusty ghouls whose first instinct is to grab the nearest drill and play Friday the 13th. Thematic and visual clichés (the alarm system which turns their bright and crisp base into a strobe-lit haunted house!) can be overcome with popcorn-movie craftsmanship and energy, but neither is present here, at least not the required amount.

A cast of very talented people well above this project, including Liev Schreiber, Olivia Williams, and Romola Garai (who should be an A-list star), cry, shout, and sprint with convincing desperation and intensity, but none of the characters are developed beyond the superficial despite a few halfhearted third-act contemplations of mortality and the existence of an afterlife. It is hard to even imagine what drew them to this project in the first place outside of, perhaps, a decent payday.

C

Oh David...