NASA vs Hollywood: A reality check on the cheesiest Mars films ever made

What's Mars really like?: Hollywood has always been fascinated with Mars. Vivid imagination has gone into portraying the Martian landscape as a hub of creatures with multiple limbs. Is NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover set to bust the tales Hollywood spins about Mars? Will the project be the end of romantic imagination? Above is a still from Mars Attacks.

John Carter: For some reason, Mars films mostly portrayed the planet's inhabitants as aggressive, evil creatures extending their claws towards Earth. A Civil War veteran discovers 12-foot tall barbarians in Mars in the film John Carter. He gets imprisoned by Martians and manages to escape, only to encounter a princess who is in desperate need of a savior.

NASA's take on Mars: NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity studied layers in the Burns Cliff slope of Endurance Crater in 2004. The layers show different types of deposition of sulfate-rich sediments. Opportunity's panoramic camera recorded this image.
JPL-Caltech, NASA

John Carter: Directed by Andrew Stanton, John Carter starred Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins and Willem Dafoe. The film showed elaborate structures built by Martians on the planet.
JPL-Caltech, NASA

No Martian spotted by Curiosity rover yet: This is one of the first images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of August 5 PDT (morning of August 6 EDT). It was taken through a "fisheye" wide-angle lens on one of the rover's front Hazard-Avoidance cameras at one-quarter of full resolution. The camera is the left eye of a stereo pair positioned at the middle of the rover's front side.
JPL-Caltech, NASA

Mars Needs Moms: Young boy Milo starts appreciating his mom more after Martians come to Earth to take her away. Directed by Simon Wells, this 2011 animated movie starred Seth Green, Joan Cusack and Dan Fogler.
JPL-Caltech, NASA

Curiosity's first image from Mars: This is one of the first images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of August 5 PDT (morning of August 6 EDT). It was taken through a "fisheye" wide-angle lens on one of the rover's rear Hazard-Avoidance cameras at one-quarter of full resolution. The camera is the right eye of a stereo pair located at the back left, or port, side of the rover. The clear dust cover on the camera is still on in this view, and dust can be seen around its edge, along with three cover fasteners. One of the rover's wheels is in the lower right corner.
JPL-Caltech, NASA

Mission to Mars: When the first manned mission to Mars meets with a mysterious disaster, a rescue mission is launched to investigate the tragedy and bring back any survivors. Mission to Mars is directed by Brian De Palma and stars Tim Robbins, Gary Sinise and Don Cheadle.
JPL-Caltech, NASA

What Mars actually looks like: This view of Gale Crater is derived from a combination of data from three Mars orbiters. The view is looking straight down on the crater from orbit. Gale Crater is 96 miles (154 kilometers) in diameter. Mount Sharp rises about 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) above the floor of Gale Crater.
JPL-Caltech, NASA

Mission to Mars: Set in 2020, 'Mission to Mars' (2000) is a science fiction film derived from an original screenplay written by Jim Thomas, John Thomas, and Graham Yost.
JPL-Caltech, NASA

This is a close-up view of the northern two-thirds of one of the quadrangles (number 50) that were mapped onto the landing region of NASA's Curiosity rover. Note the presence of layered deposits around the rim of an impact crater, as well as along a scarp that traces through the center of the quad. These exposures are reminiscent of the terrain studied by NASA's Opportunity rover, where exploration was limited to the layered deposits exposed along the flanks of craters, in addition to NASA's Spirit rover, which studied the layering exposed along a circular scarp known as "Home Plate."
JPL-Caltech, NASA

My Favourite Martian: An utterly madcap comedy about a Martian who strayed into Earth and joins a reporter in adventures. Directed by Donald Petrie, it stars Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Daniels and Elizabeth Hurley.
JPL-Caltech, NASA

This image shows changes in the target landing area for Curiosity, the rover of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project. The larger ellipse was the target area prior to early June 2012, when the project revised it to the smaller ellipse centered nearer to the foot of Mount Sharp, inside Gale Crater.
JPL-Caltech, NASA

Red Planet: When Earth's resources dry up, astronauts search for solutions on Mars. This campy film was directed by Antony Hoffman and starred Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss and Tom Sizemore.
JPL-Caltech, NASA

Color coding in this image of Gale Crater on Mars represents differences in elevation. The vertical difference from a low point inside the landing ellipse for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (yellow dot) to a high point on the mountain inside the crater (red dot) is about 3 miles.
JPL-Caltech, NASA

Robinson Crusoe on Mars: Branded as one of the cheesiest films ever made, it features Paul Mantee, Victor Lundin and Adam West. Stranded on Mars with only a monkey for a companion, an astronaut must figure out how to find oxygen, water, and food on the lifeless planet.
JPL-Caltech, NASA

This close-up image of a dust storm on Mars was acquired by the Mars Color Imager instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on November 7, 2007, around 3 pm local time on Mars.
JPL-Caltech, NASA

Santa Claus Conquers The Martians: This 1964 film has been listed as one of the worst movies ever made. The Martians kidnap Santa because there is nobody on Mars to give their children presents. Directed by Nicholas Webster, it starred John Call, Leonard Hicks and Vincent Beck.
JPL-Caltech, NASA

Rhythmic patterns of sedimentary layering in Danielson Crater on Mars result from periodic changes in climate related to changes in tilt of the planet. This image was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
JPL-Caltech, NASA

Total Recall: The 1990 pop classic Total Recall, remade in 2012, is about a man who goes for virtual vacation memories of the planet Mars. Paul Verhoeven directed the film that established Arnold Schwarzenegger as a sci-fi star. It also starred Sharon Stone and Michael Ironside.
JPL-Caltech, NASA

This view of channels on Mars came from NASA's Mariner 9 orbiter. In 1971, Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to enter orbit around Mars.
JPL-Caltech, NASA