It took me a while before I realized this movie is kind of a take off of 1970's b-movies mixed in with satire of current culture, and on some levels it works very well. The story is simple. Billionaire astronaut goes to Mars on a secret mission to get even richer from the "vast mineral deposits" but discovers that there's "nothing but rocks and dust." He gets infected by a gold colored spore(?) which he mistakes for real gold and ends up flying back to earth as a mutated creature. He lands in Louisiana undetected during hurricane Katrina and starts killing animals and humans of the course of several years. Local sheriff gets on the case and goes to track the monster down. There is the reference to drive in sci-fi horror films from the 50's to the 70's, like a direct take on Corman's early films like Little Shop of Horrors and Creature from the Haunted Sea. Some very funny bits too. The bar scene with the hick and the Russian model who went from Vogue magazine to working for a low grade rag called Bullets and Bimbos is deadpan funny. There is a tent massacre scene which is hysterical, and the practical effects are "spit up your coffee" level of ridiculous. Obvious miniatures and over the top gore that is more funny than gross. It is a mixture of satire on old movies and current culture like the girls in bikinis with guns craze and a few pot shots at Harry Potter thrown in for good measure. The cinematography is near perfect and captures the look of the 70's much better than "Final Girl," a movie which supposedly takes place in the 1980's but was just digital video made to look like 80's era film. Didn't work well at all. Overall I give First Man on Mars a 6 out of 10 for delivering some very funny dialog, goofy gore and achieving the retro look it was aiming for.