What’s fun about watching older films that are now considered cult classics is that you get to view them through a two-scope lens. On one side you may see why it may not have appealed to audiences back when they were first released, or with the benefit of hindsight, why they didn’t succeed at the box office, while at the same time you also have the knowledge that a fanbase has accumulated throughout the years since then and whether you like the film yourself or not, odds are you’ll have an idea of why that following has amassed.
Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! is one of those such films, though it’s possible that younger generations may have a hard time believing this wasn’t a successful film due to the amount of memorabilia that can be found and the yearly influx of new items featuring the Martians in their spacesuits and their elaborate blasters often around Halloween. But those are all things that the film has earned in the decades since its release, as it was initially viewed as a flop, grossing just $101 million on a combined marketing/production budget of $100 million.
Burton’s film was an homage to invasion movies and radio programs from the 1950s, and the likes of director Ed Wood (who Burton had already paid tribute to two years prior in a biographical dramedy about the director), and while he hit the nail on the head with a lot of the ridiculous notions and gags poking at the past, it just wasn’t something audiences seemed to be clamoring for. There’s also the fact that Independence Day had come out in July of 1996 and went on to become the highest grossing film of the year (with a lower budget to top it off), so a more satirical take on the same alien invasion angle six months later probably didn’t help it any.
What you think would help it is the star power that Mars Attacks! has behind it, with a cast list reading like a dream to any studio, and what surely felt like a can’t miss shot to take despite the niche tone of the popular genre. We’ve got Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Danny DiVito, Anette Benning, Martin Short, Michael J. Fox, Natalie Portman, Jim Brown, Pam Grier, Lisa Marie, Tom Jones, Lukas Haas, Sylvia Sidney, Paul Winfield, Jack Black and Christina Applegate. There are others I’m missing, but we’re talking recognizable faces who are there to have a good time and very likely get disintegrated by aliens.
The film was written by Jonathan Gems after he gifted Burton some Topps Mars Attacks! cards that featured the same Martians from the movie. Burton viewed as Gems soft pitching a potential movie, whereas Gems just thought Burton would enjoy the cards. Nonetheless, Gems got to work on a script, and after rewrites with Burton a story came together – and it’s a fun enough satirical take on the movies they were looking to pay homage to; however, it could have been more than that had they just given it a little more time in the oven.
Mars Attacks! hits the intended notes, but it leaves something to be desired. The characters are sometimes purposefully one or two-dimensional, but it does sometimes cause the film to feel fairly surface level during certain portions. It’s not quite two hours long and luckily the strength of the cast and silliness of it all stops it from feeling like it drags, but it does eventually feel like the main entertainment is just watching big stars get picked off randomly over any actual story. And when the Martians’ weakness is revealed it’s not even clear how the rest of the U.S.A. becomes aware of it, let alone the rest of the world. Maybe that’s something that was commonplace back in the ‘50s and another tip of the hat to the times, but it comes off as fairly clunky regardless, like they just needed to wrap things up and weren’t exactly sure how to do so.
All that said, the effects are fun and 1996 was a time when new technologies were being invented in order to take Hollywood blockbusters to the next level. While Mars Attacks! is a throwback to films of old, the effects used were some of the newest of the times, with Industrial Light & Magic involved in making the Martians with computer animation. It’s a fun watch that looks superb in 4K, and it’s an instance where some of the animations that don’t translate as well due to the crispness of 4K actually benefit the tone the film is going for. The Martians themselves look top tier and are hilarious to watch interact with one another.
Mars Attacks! has rightfully gained a cult following since its release 30 years ago and Burton and company succeeded in their quest to pay satirical homage to the films of the genre that may have inspired them early on. For those who have always been fans the film has never looked better, and for those who may only know of the Martians after visiting Spirit Halloween, well, there’s no better time to get acquainted with them on a more animated level.
In short: Ack! Ack! Ack!
4K Blu-ray Video and Audio Review:
The restoration of Mars Attacks! Into 4K 2160p/Dolby Vision/HDR10 looks spectacular, with the Martians coming to life like never before, and the mix of CGI and practical effects looking charming, cheesy and top tier all at the same time, depending on how they were meant to look. The film is fairly bright and colourful, despite its tone of death and destruction, and all shine through vibrantly here. Warner Bros. continues to knock their 4K restorations out of the park, which is great to see, as these films deserve to live on and gain new life as technology evolves, over simply being left to turn to dust as though they’d been blasted by a Martian in the film.
On the audio side of things we’ve got a Dolby Atmos mix that, as continues to be the trend with these releases, sits right up there alongside the picture restoration in magnificent delivery. The amount of Martian sound effects constantly going off, as well as explosions, gunshots, tanks, buildings collapsing, Tom Jones belting out lyrics, dialogue being delivered in both calm and crazy fashion, and a fairly consistent score playing throughout, this mix handles it all with ease. If you can turn your speakers up to eleven, then by all means do so and enjoy the sci-fi chaos that ensues.
Special Features:
Looking Back on Mars Attacks! – As has been the case with a number of recent Warner Bros. 4K restoration releases, Mars Attacks! gets a retrospective new featurette added on that comes in at seven-and-a-half-minutes in length. We mainly hear from screenwriter Jonathan Gems about how the movie came to be, how he’d get stuck at certain parts of the script and Tim would swoop in with a solution that worked perfectly for the story, and just how it all came together. We also hear from a number of other crew members about their experience working on the film, from VFX to cinematography.
Ack! Ack! Aesthetic – Here we’ve got another new featurette that comes in at just under 11-minutes in length, and here we learn more about the production design, as well as more about the effects and just creating the general look and vibe of the film. Here we also get a better look at how much had to be created for the film and the decision to focus on CGI over stop-motion, as Burton had originally hoped for.
Disclaimer: A review copy of this Blu-ray was sent to me to cover in honest and truthful fashion.
Warner Bros. Pictures Presents Mars Attacks! Directed By: Tim Burton. Written by: Jonathan Gems. Starring: Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Danny DiVito, Anette Benning, Martin Short, Michael J. Fox, Natalie Portman, Jim Brown, Pam Grier, Lisa Marie, Tom Jones, Lukas Haas, Sylvia Sidney, Paul Winfield, Jack Black, Christina Applegate. Running time: 106 Minutes. Rating: PG-13. Released on 4K Blu-ray: Aug. 11, 2026.
About Brendan Campbell
