Director Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! is a dark comedy that affectionately hearkens back to a slew of low-budget 1950s alien invasion flicks, which partially explains the distracting designs of the film's alien creatures. In particular, the CG Martians are horribly off-putting — by which we mean they look cheap, especially when standing next to the human actors. Their creepy design and unnatural movements are pervasive throughout the entire film, meaning you never really get much of a break from the visual eyesore.
Initially, Burton had wanted the Martians to be created using stop-motion effects. However, the film's budget was slashed, according to Den of Geek, and as a result, it was decided that the Martians would be brought to life using CG instead. While this may have saved the studio some money, it's debatable whether the trade-off was worth it when looking at the end result. In the end, Mars Attacks! definitely suffers from its subpar visual effects — although whether intentionally or not, the dated aesthetic does ultimately sort of add to the B-movie feel that Burton was trying to emulate in the first place.
Mars Attacks! used its campy script, star-studded cast, and unique visual stylings to endure in popular culture as a cult so-bad-it's-good film. Its popularity has persisted enough to fund a Kickstarter project in 2020 that sets out to revive the trading cards that the film was originally based on.
