Tim Burtons reverse 2001

All directors sooner or later discover Kubrick, and try to emulate him in some way, the only problem is that A director always goes wrong when he tries to be something he/she is not. Tim Burton doesn't do big, his specialty is quirky off beat movies on a modest scale. He has a particular dark sense of humor , and has his strengths but MARS ATTACKS featured none of them, it was a heartless , mean spirited construct .
Mars Attacks is a combination of Dr Stangelove and 2001 filtered through Burton Quirky movie sense, but that movie sense failed him big time, comedy isn't comedy when murder and destruction are added in. it seems people dying isn't as funny as you'd think, nor is making fun of old people, the Army and other beloved institutions .
These kind of mistakes can only happen when a director hast risen to the rank of true auteur, thats the point where the true fiasco's come, A director thinks its funny to drop the Washington monument on a group of boy scouts or drop a chandelier on Glenn Close's head, only when a director has reached the point where he is so big he can't be touched and can fill a screen with is darkest fantasies, and think its entertaining, when a director has so deluded himself, and has surround himself with a bunch of yes men and yes girls that think anything he does is great that you get to witness such excess.
In Mars Attack , Tim Burton puts on screen everything thats bad with America, greedy businessman, dishonest politicians, war mongering generals, and takes sadistic delight in murdering them, it has all the mirth of a kid torturing a small animal.
In 2001 Kubrick showed just how great a movie could be, he created visual art, Kubrick respected his audience, he made a movie that would translate to any country any culture , Kubrick gambled that the audience had evolved to the point where they could appreciate his work of art, with Mars Attacks Tim Burton saw it the other way around, he figured his audience was just as stoned as himself and had de-evolved and would giggle at seeing old people incinerated , he bet wrong, but thankfully Kubrick bet right.
Tim Burton isn't the first Big Time Director to meet his Waterloo , the history of movies is littered with big shots who have taken a fall.
Like Ralph Kramden said a long time ago, " Be kind to the people you meet on the way up, because your going to meet the same people on the way down."