What really sells this fabulous, kid-friendly 3D adventure to anybody over eight (no offense, kids) is its astonishing visuals, which uses motion-capture technology to a degree that surpasses what we saw in Avatar.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 13, 2011

The credited director is Simon Wells (The Time Machine), but the grotesque characters and dark action bear the Zemeckis stamp.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Apr 13, 2011

Children are unlikely to enjoy it, and parents will be aching for a few stiff drinks in a Mars bar long before it's over.

Full Review | Apr 10, 2011

Mars Needs To Work Out How To Animate Humans So They Don't Look Like Possessed Shop Window Dummies.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 9, 2011

It's an interplanetary clunker.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Apr 8, 2011

Family comedies about Martians don't need to be plausible exactly, but they need to be smart and entertaining. This one is ho-hum, so-so and so what?

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 7, 2011

The story canters along at a merry pace and doesn't outstay its welcome.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 7, 2011

Makes you long for the parentless state of the Martians the movie depicts, who kidnap a mother and inadvertently whisk up her little son during a mom-harvesting trip to Earth.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Apr 6, 2011

The 'Polar Express'-style CG-meets-live-action visuals are creepy and flat, the characters are largely nonexistent and the story takes so many short cuts that it becomes meaningless...

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 6, 2011

An uninvolving mo-cap adventure that's well below par. Marvin the Martian would be unhappy to share his planet with this bunch.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 4, 2011

The film looks neither fully real nor fully imagined, which could be forgiven if Mars Needs Moms had something more to offer besides its nifty technology.

Full Review | Mar 25, 2011

They took a small story, made it complicated and burdensome, filmed some actors performing it, turned those actors into affectless, mechanical cartoons, converted it to 3-D, and dropped it in theaters. Wheeee!

Full Review | Original Score: C | Mar 21, 2011

Talk all you want about technique: a good animated film depends on story and character, and it's those vital ingredients that make Mars Needs Moms so entertaining. It's also

Full Review | Mar 20, 2011

Important note: if you are going to make a film whose moral is that mechanical objects can never replace people (or Martians), try not to make exactly that mistake.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Mar 13, 2011

The biggest problem, however, remains the animation style itself. Zemeckis' motion capture technology just isn't fit to depict human movement. Worse, it can't showcase a human eyeball to save its life.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 11, 2011

This is just a big rollercoaster of a movie, filled with dazzling effects and funny creatures and the requisite five-hankie "I love you, Mom" ending. But then, there are some weird gender political battles at play here.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Mar 11, 2011

The motion-capture animation technique has come a long way since Robert Zemeckis (a producer on this film) introduced it in The Polar Express, but what's missing too often is the human element, especially during all the rambunctious activity on Mars.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 11, 2011

Even though Mars Needs Moms isn't female-friendly, mothers looking for quality time with 6- to 12-year-old boys could do worse than book group passage there soon.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 11, 2011

It seems that it's time to admit that dressing actors in LED-studded catsuits, asking them to give performances on sterile white sets and handing the results to a team of computer animators is not a way to make a good movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 11, 2011

If Breathed's style could have been applied to the animation, this offbeat story would have a better chance at success. Instead, we're left with a kids' movie that leaves audiences cold.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 11, 2011