Mars Express
Mars Express (2023) – Laurent Sarfati & Jérémie Périn
My first impression of the animation from the moment Mars Express started was somewhat mixed. Every time I’ve seen rotoscoped animation in the past it has been jarring with some feelings of the uncanny valley. The moments of the people’s walking, their arms flailing and even their facial expressions are often much smoother and more realistic than expected for animation. However, with Mars Express they achieve an rotoscoping effect that you very quickly get used to that looks surprisingly good and blends well with the artstyle of the background and surroundings. The artstyle is my favorite aspect of this movie as it often gives me a similar impression to movies like Blade Runner with it’s vast dystopian Earth cities covered in neon lights, Evangelion with its mega infrastructure and even a little bit of 2001 Space Odyssey with the elongated spaceship traveling through the empty voids of space.
The story of Mars Express is not particularly original and in my opinion is its weakest aspect as it follows some classic science fiction tropes about that problems and dangers of AI as well as the prejudices people have against digital human-like intelligence. Despite its heavy reliance on tropes I find that it succeeded in delivering a well thought out and logical story. However, while the story may be comprehensible I’m not sure it manages to say what it intended to say about the subject of AI. Our main protagonist is a detective who has a partner who is an AI-like intelligence who had once been human, but who had been restored into a robot body with a copy of their mind. The plot in my opinion appears to contradict itself a little bit in whether or not the dangers of such AI is worth the risk because there are multiple different types of AI being shown. The first is a lab made AI that is susceptible to manipulation and poses a risk to humans if bad actors are able to control them. The other is a kind of uploaded intelligence of a human mind that may no longer be fully human, but still feels human emotions. It may be possible that the intent was for the characters to conflate these two types of beings to demonstrate a natural prejudice to anyone or anything that isn’t fully human.
I believe Mars Express is a solid movie that is easily digestible for most people while still delivering complex ideas. The world of Mars Express is highly compelling with its choice of technology, society and infrastructure and while the plot is considerably existential it doesn’t paint a picture of the future that is needlessly bleak.
