While those seeking interplanetary scenarios may want more details, fans of endurance stories will be pleased. Indeed, Passage to Mars has the effect of making a trip to another world appear almost secondary. The journey undertaken here seems nearly as frightful and fascinating.

Passage to Mars is almost apologetic about being stuck on our world; to make up for it, it continually cuts to digital explorations of Mars itself, while Quinto asks more haunting questions. It's a thrill to see so careful a re-creation — and some actual footage — of Martian geography.

Jeauffre's blending of terrestrial and extraterrestrial imagery is hypnotizing and spectacular, but this story of survival feels too bloodless to appeal to the average viewer.

Danger doesn't quite translate into sustained drama here, in part because the reliance on voiceover distances us from the action.

[A] misguided hybrid that makes tediously clear from the outset that the conceit just isn’t working.