The Last Days on Mars 2013

Sara Stewart, New York Post: Fails to live up to the awesomeness of its own campy premise. Read more

William Goss, MSN Movies: I had to wonder, could I be watching the next remarkably brainy piece of sci-fi, this year's Moon? But then the first space zombie gutted a concerned colleague with a power drill, and in that moment, I knew exactly what I was in for. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: A murkily derivative sci-fi-horror entry that basically amounts to Red Planet of the Dead. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: Robinson's go-to style for action sequences is a frenetic whirlwind of quick cuts and random angles that makes Michael Bay look like Michael Powell. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: [A] low-budget, highly predictable, but well-acted Red Planet thriller ... Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: Alas, the film quickly loses its offbeat charm and devolves into a routine monster movie. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, Film.com: A study of just how to screw up what ought to be an awesome movie. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: Far more sober than that premise suggests, the unapologetically derivative sci-fi outing doesn't have the scripting muscle to deliver on its early promise. But the solid cast keeps it reasonably gripping nonetheless. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Lean, muscular and on the money, The Last Days on Mars takes a familiar story and tells it so tautly that we are pleased to be on board. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Although this film presents an interesting cast, they never feel like a crew. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Ruairi Robinson's derivative thriller renders even alien zombification as airless as a vacuum-sealed space capsule. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: Once it turns into a horror movie, "The Last Days on Mars" loses its originality and becomes the usual us-against-them battle between the dead and the undead. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: In the ways that "The Last Days on Mars" is like a horror movies, it's typical, and in the ways it's different, it's mostly flat. Read more

Bruce Ingram, Chicago Sun-Times: Appealing as that might sound to the walking-dead obsessed, this modest, low-budget sci-fi thriller is fatally lacking in entertainment value. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Globe and Mail: The Last Days on Mars ultimately confirms what science has already spent billions of dollars establishing: There's just no life here. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The acting is convincing across the board, especially Schrieber's, despite being saddled with such dialogue inanities as saying "you're gonna be all right" to a crewmate who is zombifying before his very eyes. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Had The Last Days on Mars had the sort of artistic ambitions that matched the level of its cast, or if it had fully committed to being a fun, trashy, sci-fi monster movie, it'd be a more interesting watch. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Here's hoping Robinson adds a little more extra to the terrestrial next time around. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: The first half plays out by the numbers, with undead astronauts popping open the fragile bubble protecting the crew, but there's some grandeur to the second ... Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: "The Last Days on Mars" seems like it could deliver ... thought-provoking goods - at least until the plot devolves into Zombies in Outer Space. Read more