Every year, there’s at least a couple films that come out of nowhere for me and surprise me in the best possible ways. Usually those films originate outside of the US movie industrial machine: something like Polite Society, Titane, Drive My Car, or Close. When it comes to animated fare, it’s even less surprising, as usually the battle is between US studios and some Japanese sensation. Mars Express gets my valued “Double Surprise” award: a 2D animated French sensation with zero US fanfare, a complete marketing failure of epic proportions, because this is already one of the year’s best, and probably a lock for my Top 10 at the end of 2024.
Mars Express is the space train that goes between Earth and Mars in the 23rd century. Human detective Aline Ruby (Lea Drucker) and her Robot partner Carlos (Daniel Njo Lobe), are returning from a covert ops with illegal hacker Roberta Williams (Marie Bouvet) taking her into custody. After a briefing from her human boss Chris Royjacker (Mathieu Amalric), Aline takes up a case on missing college student Jun Chow (Genevieve Doang), who went missing after “jailbreaking” a robot to be free of its AI constraints.
Do you know how hard it is to build a world in about 30ish minutes? Even the greats like Christopher Nolan or Denis Villeneuve need like an hour at least. But that’s the genius of Jérémie Périn’s film. After the first police setup, the minute we jet off to Mars, we completely understand what Aline, Carlos, and any other Martians are dealing with at this point. With our current world on the cusp of an AI revolution, Périn pushes us forward a couple hundred years so we can see a preview of coming attractions. We’re past the growth phase, and actually nearing some revolutionary nexus of human/AI cohabitation. Google Glass is essentially a part of the lived experience now, with conference call menus alongside what your eyes see. AI is fast approaching self-awareness, with certain bots intermingling with human brains blurring the ethical lines of today. And humanity isn’t making things easier, at it has started to segment itself according to its beliefs: the “anti-robot” patriots, the rich capitalists pushing for the next big thing, pleasure seekers using AI for profit, etc. These little touches are all over Mars Express but are written to be just normal, day to day occurrences, making them all the more interesting and thought-provoking.
And I didn’t even mention the story part! Again, it is the French spin on this previously done tale that makes it something new and exciting. The setup is your basic neo-noir, with Aline and Carlos investigating a missing person. The beats you will recognize early on, necessary to keep you tethered early on while Périn world builds. But even in those grounded beats we know, we get something strange going on in the sides, where for example, a chase with a sketchy character is sidetracked when the automatic mandatory AI software update stops Carlos in his tracks until the upload completes. Once we’re settled in, the story swerves, and something starts happening about halfway through, as the layers of the onion start to unfurl. Little subplotty pieces in the first half start to take greater precedence as we approach the third act, and our perspective widens and changes from our “main” story into something else entirely. Périn sticks the landing too, closing a messy, complex tale with something clear but equally complex and bold, showing incredible confidence for a relatively untested director.
Mars Express is one of the good ones: the surprises that break up the movie studio machine. France animators, you’ve been holding out on us! Expectations are now blown out the window. If you have more in the chamber like this one, keep em coming, early and often. Plus, s’il vous plait!