No laser beams. No alien attackers coming to consume Earth. No Will Smith and no Charlize Theron in sexy outfit. Not frightened yet? Read on...

I saw this movie in a cinema with my girlfriend - a Physics teacher. What we both liked was how it followed laws of physics - it was perhaps the first sci-fi we saw which showed properly how space works and what vacuum is all about.

I read in one review that the scene where they raise the USA flag is pathetic, when they should be running into the base to look for survivors; I disagree: Since they arrived nearly a year AFTER the incident, rushing doesn't make any sense.

I liked the "puzzle" part of the movie, as well as the final moments when the truth is revealed. Some laughed at that point, but I liked it a lot.

Remember how Space Odyssey plays with the idea that the intelligent life on Earth might be a product of "targetted imprinting"? Well, M2M suggests yet another possibility, and I find that extremely appealing.

The cast seemed brave to me: No top-class stars, no pretty faces, but instead good actors that are believable (after all, Garry Sinise played in Apollo 13 and Jerry O'Connell played a similar role in "The Sphere").

This movie is surprisingly bad. In fact, it is one of the lamest excuses for a big budget film I've seen in a long time. Cliches abound--visual & verbal ("Where's Woody?" DRAMATIC PAUSE "He didn't make it.") Then there's the argument over whether or not to send a rescue mission: c'mon--if they weren't going to, there wouldn't be a movie! There was an amazing lack of suspense in what was supposed to be a danger-filled hull breach segment, but, then again, maybe it's impossible to sustain suspense in zero gravity. . .

By this point I was groaning out loud, but what really made me smack my forehead was THE FACE. That's all I'll say: the face on Mars. I kept hoping, when the "face" cracked open and light poured out, that a blonde-wigged Michael Caine would leap out and slash our intrepid astronauts to ribbons.

One final comment: I nearly hurled when the 3 of the 4 remaining astronauts all join hands with a Genuine Martian (3 guesses what it looks like) around a holographic image of Earth and smile beatifically at each other. I couldn't stop myself: I broke out into the chorus of "It's a small world after all..."

My only consolation as I left the theater (as I remarked to my companion) was, "Thank God it was half-price Tuesday so we didn't lose 16 bucks..."