Mars Attacks!
1996 · Directed by Tim Burton
Original language: English
- comedy
- fantasy
- science fiction
The story
A fleet of Martian spacecraft surrounds the world's major cities and all of humanity waits to see if the extraterrestrial visitors have, as they claim, "come in peace." U.S. President James Dale receives assurance from science professor Donald Kessler that the Martians' mission is a friendly one. But when a peaceful exchange ends in the total annihilation of the U.S. Congress, military men call for a full-scale nuclear retaliation.
What it’s like
Bright, saturated pop-art color laid over deliberately cheesy 1950s B-movie staging: candy-pink and mint-green Washington interiors, gleaming chrome flying saucers, and Martian craft that glow in alien purples and greens against wide, sunny American skies. Tim Burton's framing is busy and cartoonish, with exaggerated camera angles, sudden zooms, and set pieces built like comic-book panels. Danny Elfman's brassy, playful score drives the energy, and the sound design mixes sci-fi twang with slapstick pops and bangs. The vibe is giddy, loud, and irreverent, a mock-disaster romp with a wink in every frame. The pacing is brisk and scattershot, jumping between the White House, a Kansas trailer park, and a Nevada military base, with the tone swinging from satire to slapstick. Its intensity is cartoonish: plenty of mass destruction, ray-gun deaths, and bodies vaporized in bright flashes, but it reads as goofy rather than grim, with little real dread or gore. It suits a silly Friday night or a comfort rewatch for fans of Burton's offbeat humor and anyone who enjoys campy disaster spoofs.
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