The Martian Chronicles: Part 2 Movie Review

Middle installment of the weak network TV miniseries based on Ray Bradbury's book. In a segment called “The Settlers,” humans flock from a strife-torn Earth to Mars in droves after disease apparently wipes out the ancient and inscrutable Martian civilization. Some colonists still wish to meet the creatures, like NASA colonel Rock Hudson and priest Fritz Weaver, the latter in a very clunky adaptation of “The Fire Balloons” (a Bradbury story actually from his Illustrated Man collection, but published in a few editions of The Martian Chronicles as well). The drama improves considerably with the introduction of a shape-shifting Martian whose unfortunate fate is to conform to human brain waves, like it or not.

1979 97m/C Rock Hudson, Fritz Weaver, Roddy McDowall, Bernie Casey, Darren McGavin, Gayle Hunnicutt, Barry Morse, Bernadette Peters; D: Michael Anderson Sr.; W: Richard Matheson. VHS, Beta FRH