Owlwise Anyone coming to this 1980 adaptation of "The Martian Chronicles" for the first time will undoubtedly be put off immediately by the special effects, which were so-so even then, and the slower, more cerebral pace of the narrative. And that would be a shame, because the heart & soul of Bradbury's book is alive & well here, and still both thought-provoking & emotionally satisfying.Of course, it was never hard science to begin with, so complaining about the unscientific depiction of Mars & the behavior of the Earthmen is utterly beside the point. This is as much fable, parable, allegory as it is anything else: a study of the human propensity to opt for the crass over the sublime, the material over the spiritual, ugliness & power over beauty & harmony. It is, in fact, a sometimes scathing, sometimes sorrowful exploration of the human condition, and particularly human weakness.And yet, both in the idealized Martians, and in the few humans who respond to the wonder of the Martian landscape & philosophy, we're shown what we could be, if only we could transcend our own pettiness, greed, and driving fears. This is shown to especially good effect in the slow growth of Colonel Wilder (a quietly effective Rock Hudson), whose initial misgivings about what Earth will do to Mars leads to his own eventual transformation. And in the final two stories - "Night Meeting" & "The Million-Year Picnic" - this is depicted in scenes that have stayed with me for close to 4 decades now, for their sheer beauty & wisdom.Again, not everyone will be able or willing to make the leap & overlook the flawed surface of this mini-series. But if they can, then they'll experience science-fiction at its best: not CGI explosions & battles & endless action, but the interplay of ideas & emotions, inviting the viewers to look at their own lives, and to think about what they really want from the gift of existing, however briefly, in this miracle of the Universe.

metropolitansales I gave it a 7.3 in my mind but marked it an 8 due to the year it was made and how it might have been if they had today's tech working for it.... Here we have a genuine Sci-Fi feature Mini Series that uses all the old Hollywood tricks of filming spaceships taking off , traveling, and landing, all with wires and toy rockets. You have to forgive it and open up your mind, give it a chance to play out and just go with it. The star-laden cast and story-line will pull it through for you. The era it was created is just before "Star Trek The Next Generation" and just after "Star Wars" the movie so it had tough competition in a young but rapidly widening outer space-opera genre. The heavy here is a 50-ish Rock Hudson playing the lead along with a hard working cast of TV series & TV movie regulars. The surprising part is how serious the cast is about their respective roles, there's no clowning around or rolling the eyes or goofy expressions, they take it seriously and it helps. Take a Sunday afternoon off and go ahead and watch it, if your a sci-fi fan and like your CG graphics you'll have to bend your standards and grin and bear it, but if your the casual sci-fi fan without great expectations, and like easy to follow scripts ,then this movie is for you! At the end you'll be glad you watched it.

John Holden I saw parts of this in the 1980s and thought it was the worst kind of TV dreck. Watching it now, I wasn't disappointed: it's still dreck. Yeah, if you're into TV with all the bad acting combined and trite dialogue, maybe it'll seem reasonable to you.But if TV seems an insipid place, you may find this unbearably tediously painfully DD (Monty Python for deadly dull). It so boring you don't even get angry. It's like watching Ponderosa but there's a space colony in Nevada, I mean Mars, and talk and staring and just nothing.There's probably a negative effect eg. it's so bad you lose brain cells. Avoid it. Watch something exciting, maybe a Discovery Channel special about why ice melts more slowly at lower temperatures.Run away from this.

Daryl_G_Morrissey After watching Ray Bradbury's 'The Martian Chronicles, part 1' last night, I was up early this morning to watch parts 2 & 3.Considering I hadn't watched them since I was a kid, there was quite a lot I remembered. There was also a lot more that I understood, now.Granted the effects are a very dated, but the storyline still holds true today. The theme of whether it is right for us to go to Mars, even as explorers, gives rise to many questions. Would the Martians take our arrival as us trying to colonise or conquer their world? Would we soon destroy their planet as we did ours? Would we be able to co-exist with the Martians or would we resort to genocide? Each part is, in itself, a separate Chronicle of the colonisation of Mars. Part 1 begins in 1976 with the first unmanned landing on the Red Planet, followed by the first two expeditions, the first in 1979, which end in tragedy for both the Human crew members and the Native Martians. The third expedition shows one crew member, Spender, trying to save the Martian ideals while also trying to stop the his own crew members from disrespecting and polluting the Martian world.Part 2 follows on with many Human colonists spread out in small colonies over Mars. The underlying story in part 2, is what is going on back on Earth. With the last superpowers escalating hostilities toward each other, it soon becomes clear that War is inevitable. On Mars, the colonists have to decide whether to return home, to maybe die with their families and friends or stay on Mars and hope for a better future. Unfortunately, War does come and both sides annihilate each other, leading the Earth burned and dying.Part 3 continues with the last handful of colonists each trying to survive on an almost deserted planet. The year is now 2007 and Colonel Wilder, whose story has tied the three parts together, returns from a trip to the now barren Earth and, goes on a search to find some living Martians. This ends with him taking his family to learn the Martian way of life and to hopefully learn how they survived for Millennia. And with the consent and understanding of his family, Colonel Wilder destroys the last Rocket, that could take them away from Mars.After nearly five hours of classic sci-fi, I just had to write this synopsis / review of what has now become one of favourite sci-fi adventures, ever.