once upon a time there be a brilliant horror director name john carpenter . he burst onto the scene with halloween and which be not only masterfully do and but spawn a whole genre of bad sequel that still plague u today . he follow that up with a string of hit and include the thing and which be still for my money one of the scary movie ever make . and throughout he show a wonderful feel for what it be that scar u . but then something go wrong . it hard to pinpoint exactly when it happen and perhaps as early a the prince of darkness and which be creepy but deeply flaw and or they live and certainly by the time he make the regrettable memoir of an invisible man . but somewhere in there and a decade ago now and the great man lose his touch . minor spoilersand so we be leave with jumbled and cliched garbage like ghost of mar from a man who we should be able to count on for top flight sci fi or horror . how do carpenter late film go wrong . let me count the way . he begin the movie by make an early critical mistake that smack of a film student try too hard he decide to show the movie in flashback mode . i do not know how much bad of a decision you can make in a action or horror type yarn from the opening moment of the film we know exactly who be go to make it and who isn not ( although the odds of natasha henstridge not make it be admittedly slim ) . and then after a decent setup and he proceed to turn the whole thing into a brainless action flick in the style of his escape from movie and or maybe a modern day mad max . complete with stupid weapon and goofy makeup even . truly low common denominator stuff no imagination whatsoever . it could really have be set anywhere in the past and in a post apocalyptic future and on a prison island and on earth and anywhere and anytime mar and which carpenter claim he want to make a movie about and be totally take out of the equation and and his martian apparently have nothing well to do than act like a primitive tribe and practice martial art . and the bad part be that the basic concept bury underneath all the garbage be actually a pretty good one in the right hand it could have be very creepy . i feel embarrass for mr. carpenter that it actually reach the point where i wish that another director have be give the chance to direct this same basic storyline . so much more could have be do with it . a it be and be stick with this . and this be not good . at all .