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the audience applauded

A Masterpiece!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

This 5-minute movie from Edison studios was made eight years after Georges Méliès's "A Trip to the Moon" and while other reviewers have been calling it a knockoff of this film, I disagree. This movie may be much shorter and more simplistic, but the effects are amazing, and honestly are just as good as those in Méliès's film.The story of the movie is very fast-paced and doesn't slow down. Basically, a scientist discovers an anti-gravity formula and uses it on various objects. However, he accidentally spills some on himself and ends up on mars where he's threatened by various tree-like creatures who threaten to snatch him (which are convincing even today). Then, some giant martian gets him and turns him into what looks like a snowball (too bad the edits here were much too obvious) and tries roasting the guy over a fire but he escapes and gets back to earth. There's a twist at the very end where the scientist spills the formula on the floor and makes the room spin.Like I said, amazing effects. Many of them are very convincing even today, and at only 5 minutes this is pretty entertaining (although some of this could come from the fact that the YouTube uploading I've seen had some fun piano music with it). Even today I think most people would find it very watchable--and that's saying something.

Everyone knows about A Trip to The Moon. One of the first science fiction films it was a major milestone in film history. So when Thomas Edison was making films under his studio he decided to make an All American remake. Instead of a giant bullet, it's a scientist discovering reverse gravity. And instead of going to the moon, he goes to Mars. One step beyond. Well the scientist get's discovered by Martians, and he is soon sent back home by the giant overlord Martian. The scientist throws something on the ground and the room starts to spin. Just saying that description will make you laugh. But still it is pretty impressive. And the special effects are good. It's not as good as A Trip To The Moon but I still have to give it credit.

An interesting piece of movie which is based entirely on H. G. Wells book. Melies "A Trip to the Moon" is based mostly on J. Verne's book "From The Earth to the Moon" and has elements from Wells book "The First Men in the Moon" (Wells mentions that the moon is inhabited by Selenites and about huge plants and also in Verne's book they never get to step on the moon). In this movie, like in Wells book, the scientist discovers a substance which defies gravity (in the book it's a new material called cavorite) which helps him travel up in the air and straight to Mars! There he finds strange creatures and an environment different from Earth. He manages to get back to his house and in a strange twist he spills the substance on the floor. It is not as good as Melie's movie but is fun small piece of history. If you like the short "magic films" of this era than is a must. You have to love the way they brought fantasy into life and the way they used the means they had at the time to make this possible.

A Trip to Mars (1910) *** (out of 4) This is a fairly interesting picture from Edison about a scientist who discovers a powder that can defy gravity. At first he uses this to move a few objects in his room but then he decides to take a trip to Mars where he encounters some giant tree people and some sort of monster. I'll admit that I'm not quite certain what the monster did to the scientist but it looks like a very early version of a crack pipe. A TRIP TO MARS isn't a masterpiece like A TRIP TO THE MOON but I think fans of the bizarre should enjoy it. The best moments happen when the scientist lands on Mars and we see the giant tree-looking creatures, which were quite cleverly done and look very good. This is when the film turns really strange as this demon thing takes the scientist and smokes something. Again, I'm not sure what he was doing exactly but it was quite effective. This film was made around the same time as Edison's FRANKENSTEIN and the set here looks very similar to the one used in that film so I do wonder if they're the same.