Who stole the rest of the film? Great set up, but...

I will watch this film anytime it is on TV, but I too have always thought the ending was rushed. I also was always disturbed by the train, which seemed like something out of an amusement park more than a real train. Everything about the last 10 minutes or so have always felt kind of fake to me. Someting about that set design. Sort of like an old STAR TREK episode, like the one where Kirk and crew must battle various freakazoids or be punished by an unseen force. You can almost hear the plywood creaking underneath their feet.

Like you, Chris, I loved the setting and backstory involved in this production. It's one of my all time favourite films (next to Aliens and Kill Bill Vol. 1). The film's allusions to a Matronage was a great touch, and reminds me of the book "Daughters of a Coral Dawn" where women colonize a planet (most of them engaging in same-sex relationships as a result of the same-sex population). I have a copy of the orignal drafted script for GoM, and there were more references to lesbian undertones going on in the original vision for the film. Some of the references (like "breeders" for the straight folk) remain in the finished film though, although the references are now more subtle and aren't at the forefront of the film's story.
I heard that Pam Grier had a bit of a problem with the part where she originally had to stroke Clea's leg fondly on the train in the original script (Clea was orignally written to be Grier's plaything/lapdog in the original script, who shot jealous looks over at Natasha's character whenever she was praised or touched by Grier's character instead of her), so Larry and John had to rewrite that scene (which has now ended up with Grier stroking Natasha'a arm instead: "thats why I need you straight Melanie"... "don't worry Commander, I'm as *straight* as they come"). Why Grier had a problem with that train scene, I don't know. She did go on to star in The L Word, after all.

The Goldenrod draft script is pretty accurate to what you see on screen (only minor dialogue changes were made to this during shooting).

I found this film to be everything I could possibly want in a tongue-in-cheek sci-fi/western film that wasn't supposed to be taking itself seriously. I loved the sometimes deliberately cheesy dialogue. I loved the action, and the heavy music that accompanied it (making me bop about in my seat as a result). But, mostly, I loved the design of the police costumes (I'm the proud owner of Clea's, and still on the lookout for Natasha's).

Even now, years afer seeing it, I can watch it again and again. :)

Yes, the ending does feel a bit rushed to me, and I usually find myself skipping back a few chapters on the remote, just to buy myself back some more viewing time! I think the film is perfect how it ends though. I loved listening to the film's commentary on the very end scene where John mentions that Natasha had intended to pull a face and cock her gun off screen to poke fun at Ice Cube and the moment, but that it got left in the film because it looked so cheesy-badass and amusing. It was. :D

I've recently written to John's co-writer, Larry Sulkis, expressing interest in writing a kind of sequel story, and I've had quite a positive reply back. He seems a very nice man. I'm currently working on my continuation of the film in story form at the moment, and having a lot of fun with it. In Larry's words to me: "Clearly Melanie and Desolation have further adventures". :)

Wow, Ghosts of Mars fans... AWESOME!!

The film was awesome! I like movies where our heroes/survivors come up with this big "fool-proof" escape/last ditch/survival plan that ends up going haywire... The end result is the cast is practically killed off and we're left with our main characters.

I liked the action and the music. It was awesome.

A sequel would make my day. Hell, I've always imagined a video game too. I guess I can dream.

I feel weirdly attached to this movie... It is cheesy, yes, but also very charming. And it does feel as if someone stole the rest of the film!

This should have been dirtier, darker, more mysterious. Like with those wire-nails-knives-scissors thingies hanging from the ceiling - was that some kind of trip-wire ghost-alarm or what? They never explained, which I liked. A whole lot more should have been left unexplained. The whole Mel-telling-the-council-what-happened part could have been left out. And Whitlock could have been left out altogether, that character ruined all the mystery in the movie. This should have been less Firefly/Serenity and more Natural Born Killers - I think that the surreality of NBK would have been perfect for GofM, and the possessed people should have been more Mickey and Mallory than reavers. Not so overtly hostile, more like Mickey and Mallory in the diner in the opening sequence of NBK. Friendly but homicidal.

Or maybe this should have been MORE Firefly/Serenity than it was? It was like it ended up hanging in between somehow, not knowing what it wanted to be. Warm or cold? Hardcore or tongue-in-cheek?

Anyway, great set-up, but then they told the story wrong somehow. I really feel for this movie, and wish that it had been better. Is that weird or what? Such a waste of Henstridge/Statham/Grier/DuVall, they all could have been used better...