A Stunning Sci-Fi Noir That Shatters Expectations

The big picture

• Mars Express
  is a visually stunning sci-fi with reflections on technology and life beyond its thrilling action sequences.
• The film grapples with universal anxieties and personal struggles in a futuristic world, showing authentic emotions and connections.
• The end of
  Mars Express
  offers a series of shocking revelations, offering deeper truths that are both tragic and transcendent.

In the opening scene of Mars Expressthe director's fantastic debut Jeremy Perin with which he co-wrote Laurent Sarfati, it's immediately apparent that this movie isn't messing around. A door is answered, a neck is brutally broken and a robot is shot down. We don't know why any of this happens, but we'll spend the rest of the magnificent animated sci-fi novel piecing together why. However, it turns out that the answers to the central mystery are less important than the broader questions he's pondering about technology, artificial intelligence, and life itself. There are shades of classic works like Blade Runner, RoboCopi terminator which then intersect with the same sensibility that the spectacular recent series did The reign of the scavengers such a magnificent experience. Indeed, the gorgeous opening credits capture the same sense of quiet awe. At the same time, this is similarly undercut by just the right amount of dread about what's to come.

Although it has many reference points, they are all only a small part of the picture that Périn is painting. He's created a world that's sometimes darkly funny, with great jokes about the day-to-day mundanity that's endured even with technological advances, becoming more and more transcendent the longer you spend in it. It may be exaggerating. things a bit to name the film of this generation Ghost in the Shell, but the comparison still becomes more and more apt, especially when it comes to its most evocative ending. There are parts that may be more modest in investigation and shallow in their initial characterizations, though ultimately transcend any limitations in surprising ways. When you arrive at your destination, focus on all the background elements of the journey. Get your vision and then some, capturing the mind as it does the soul.

What is “Mars Express”?

Unknowingly caught up in it all is private detective Aline Ruby, with the voice Morla Gorrondona in the English version and Lea Drucker in the French original, who spends his days at work doing everything from hunting down hackers to finding missing people. Next to his fellow android Carlos Rivera, with the voice Josh Keaton in the English version and Daniel Njo Lobéwe see them chasing one of these targets in a solid opening action sequence establish the thematic foundations of the film. There are anti-droid protests happening in the background of the mission as the duo dance their way through a chase.

They succeed but, when they travel back to their home of Mars, they realize that there is no triumphant welcome party for them. However, both return to lives grounded in everyday struggles. Aline is a recovering alcoholic who has recently been doing her best to stay sober and Carlos tries to reconnect with his family despite being estranged from them when he was alive because of his actions. When they get a new job to find out what happened to a missing college student who was present during the opening murder sequence. Although she managed to hide and escape, now there are dark forces looking to find her first. Both Aline and Carlos, carrying their respective baggage, will end up discovering more things beneath the surface of this world that could change everything.

All of this is initially more standard noir material that's given a bigger twist through its genre elements and is set in the year 2200. What heightens not only the animation that brings it vibrantly to life to thrilling and expertly tense action sequences, but the more emotional thematic core. Even in a futuristic world from another planet with huge creatures floating in vats that feel like they came out of it David Lynch's dune and robots taking over most jobs, from doctors to sex workers, there are universal anxieties that linger. They are personal, the loneliness and connectedness that surrounds them, just as they are structural, with corruption and inequality everywhere, which all must fight. There is a refreshing candor in the way Mars Express establish this, building his world without over-explaining things. The characters know what's at stake, ensuring that everything flows naturally as they make their way through each new situation.

'Mars Express' is a stellar work of science fiction

When death comes, it happens quickly and leaves the characters reeling, struggling to cope with the trauma they've witnessed. None of them, not even Carlos, are invulnerable superheroes who can take unlimited punishment and not be affected by it. They hurt, physically and psychologically, but they have to go on just like we all have to. The friendship between Carlos and Aline is equally authentic in its sadness. They're co-workers, yes, but when everything starts to fall apart, they realize they're the only friends they have. A tender moment near the end where they share a laugh before taking on what could be their last mission together says a lot without saying anything at all. When we make the final leap into the stratosphere, it's this emotional foundation that ensures you feel the impact as it flies.

When everything starts to fall apart, Carlos and Aline stay tied to each other, make all the boundaries between them clear, as robot versus human were largely unimportant with greater nuance than other recent sci-fi that have similarly attempted it. Even a small moment of humor where a man holding a gun calls out to ask if they are humans or robots before trying to shoot them is telling. When this goes full speed ahead in a climactic action sequence, it's a suitably exciting and inventively animated battle. A moment where Carlos shoots into the sky is spectacular when you realize what he's doing. However, just as it reaches these thrilling heights, it's when everything comes crashing down again that the film achieves something sublime and sad.

Without giving anything away, the end of the film is a series of gut punches both painful and poetic that all hit home. While it may seem slightly disconnected from much of what came before it, that's precisely the point. Just as our duo dug into the details of the case before them and possibly expected simple answers, life isn't that simple. In the end, more than the arresting action or the unfolding of the mystery, Mars Express he finds deeper truths that are as tragic as they are transcendent. This makes for a sci-fi tapestry that is not only worth getting lost in, but also deeply human. What a painful joy.

Mars Express hits US theaters starting May 3. Click below to see times near you.

GET TICKETS