Where it goes wrong

Tim doesn't tend to do gothic much anyway.

Yes, but....both of those films suck, anyway.

Had Burton made it a much straighter tale of the classic sci-fi cards it was much too loosely based on, I'd have likely enjoyed this much more.

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I think you missed something: "...and let its inherent campiness come through on its own."

And "play it straight" does not mean make it a serious drama, because the events are patently ridiculous and are ultimately inherently funny, so you don't need a bunch of non-comic actors goofing on their lines and "doing comedy". Some people understand that.

This might clarify a little: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_comedy

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the problem with this movie is that it was too dumb and silly to be taken seriously (at all)

and all the characters were completely unlikable.
You just don't care for any single one of them. It is pretty hard to do a movie like this (even a comedy) when there is absolutely no one to root for.

This might have been a spoof and a comedy, but it was still a movie with a plot. It was still a movie that had a story to tell,

and it fails. The movie didn't have to see so dumb and silly. We get it, It was a spoof, it was supposed to be a joke,
but this was not a movie like Scary movie or Airplane for example where the story doesn't matter, what matters is the jokes alone.

No, this was not that type of movie. It wanted to be, but it wasn't.

we were presented with a plot and with some characters, Tim Burton presented us with a story about Alien Invasion,
and then the movie completely loses itself. the movie is dumb, the characters are stupid, the aliens are even dumb ( I seriously cannot understand why they sound like ducks)

Even Ed Wood made his silly movies more serious than this was.

If Burton wanted to make a spoof like the movie Airplane or something like that, then don't add an actual story, Don't waste time trying to establish characters.
Just make the aliens land, start destroying everything and have the humans fight back.
But Burton was confused I Think, he wanted to make a silly spoof but with an actual story and plot to tell.

that's why It failed, and I agree with the person that made this thread.

One ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.

Those cards are pretty graphic for the early sixties. I've got some of the Dinosaur Attacks ones from the eighties, one show a herbivore eating a baby out of a stroller; the epitome of bad taste.

The two biggest problems from the get-go are that there's no point in the Martian invasion and their demise is too stupid. Basically why it's the only Tim Burton film I dislike.

darryl-tahirali wins the thread.

"Then wouldn't it be called Independence Day?"

No, I think you're completely missing the point. Even though Independence Day had a similar theme of hostile alien invasion, Mars Attacks was based on a set of 1962 Topps collectors' cards which were all entitled "Mars Attacks". Tim Burtons movie directly used the look and event depictions of those cards in his movie, a supposed cinematic version of that "Mars Attacks" card series.

A properly envisaged Mars Attacks would have looked nothing like Independence Day, and would have had vastly different events and scenes, as depicted in the 1962 Topps cards.

And, of course, it would need to be called "Mars Attacks", like the cards.
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The story is king.