History YMMV / MarsAttacks

** The Martian Ambassador was brought into the White House claiming to apologize for his people's misdeeds. What does he do? [[spoiler: Reduce everyone to skeletons.]]

*** It is also mentioned somewhere (can't remember where) that that [[SingleTear Single]] [[ManlyTears manly tear]] the leader sheds? that's how the Martians Vomit!

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: On one side, the Martians are psychos slaughtering everything ForTheEvulz. On the other, most of the human characters are unlikable people. It certainly aimed for an inversion, as the latter meeting horrible deaths at the hands of the former [[ComedicSociopathy is supposed to be part of the fun]]. But it depends on the viewer liking the strong BlackComedy.

** The Martian who killed Danny [=DeVito=]'s character, he was just standing there while Danny's character tries to make a deal with him. Was he contemplating his proposal before he decided "ah screw it, I wanna zap him", or he didn't understand a word he said and was like "whatever"?

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: The film has an AllStarCast plus some up-and-comers... and doesn't really do much with any of them. How cool would it have been to see Creator/JackNicholson or Creator/PierceBrosnan shooting Martians with a laser gun? Or have one of Music/TomJones' songs be what causes the Martians' heads to explode? How cool would it have been to have the climax be Tom Jones on the back of a flatbed singing "She's a Lady" or "What's New, Pussycat?", instead of him running into the woods and contributing basically nothing to the plot?

* SpecialEffectsFailure: In the scene where one of the aliens is disguised as a human girl, she's constantly chewing on gum (as explained later, she needs it to breathe). Later, Martin Short's character flirts with her and puts his finger in her mouth, which she bites off. As he removes his hand, he rips off part of her fake skin, exposing the alien jaw. She is then seen still chewing on the gum. However, the exposed alien teeth remain closed the whole time, while they should be shown chewing. It gives the impression that she is a robot rather then a Martian with a breach on her mask, though knowing the Martians they could very well have built a robot girl.
** She's definitely not a robot; the novelization mentions that she was one of the Martian leader's top assassins (who becomes furious upon learning that she has been killed.)

* {{Applicability}}: The scene where the president tries to form a truce with the Martians and delivers a great RousingSpeech to do so, [[spoiler:only for them to kill him]] is nowadays often compared to attempts to form peace with other countries.

* NightmareFuel: Every atrocity the Martians commit. Special mentions go to their implied murder of a little girl, and killing an innocent dog.

** Both Portman and Creator/GlennClose would later join the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse as [[Film/{{Thor}} Jane]] [[Film/ThorTheDarkWorld Foster]] and [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy Irani Rael]] respectively. Benning would also join the MCU too as The Supreme Intelligence/[[spoiler:Mar-Vell]].

** Both Portman and Creator/GlennClose would later join the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse as [[Film/{{Thor}} Jane]] [[Film/ThorTheDarkWorld Foster]] and [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy Irani Rael]] respectively.

* RetroactiveRecognition:
** Creator/NataliePortman, Creator/JackBlack, Ray J and Creator/SarahJessicaParker (to a lesser extent), were not famous when this movie came out and would only later be recognized, making this all-star cast even more impressive.

* FauxSymbolism: [[spoiler:When Byron seemingly dies, his body is shown laying on a cross painted on the runray.]]

* AdaptationDisplacement: The trading card series from the 60's and the comic series from the 90's are known well among pop-culture geekdom but most people recognize these aliens from this movie.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: Variation: The cast is ''loaded'' with self-important, bombastic [[{{Jerkass}} Jerkasses]]. This is so we don't feel sorry when the Martians kill all of them and feel good about the ones which ''are'' genuinely good [[spoiler: mostly]] surviving.
** That said, it still falls into it for some who feel that a lot of the "good" characters are [[FlatCharacter flat and uninteresting]] or [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter get nothing to do]], while most of the "jerk" characters [[UnintentionallySympathetic don't really deserve]] the over-the-top brutal deaths they receive.

** The destruction of the Galaxy Hotel? Was a real Las Vegas hotel, with its (already scheduled in advance) demolition filmed by the movie crew.

** Creator/DannyDeVito's lawyer is gunned down without so much as a chuckle.

* VindicatedByCable: This movie failed at the box office hard enough to screw Creator/TimBurton out of directing what [[DevelopmentHell eventually became]] ''Film/SupermanReturns''. Only now is it a minor CultClassic.

* RootingForTheEmpire: There's a part of the fanbase that genuinely wanted the Martians to win. Justified since the humans in the film can be every bit as goofy as the Martians themselves (especially General Decker, whose basically a Martian in human skin), making for a decent BlackComedy.

* SpiritualLicensee: ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans'', though in that video game there was only one alien attacking Earth, and they weren't a Martian.

*** Also this wouldn't be the last time Natalie was in the White House as she'd return to play First Lady Jackie Kennedy in 2016.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: The film has an AllStarCast plus some up-and-comers... and doesn't really do much with any of them. How cool would it have been to see Creator/JackNicholson or Creator/PierceBrosnan shooting Martians with a laser gun? Or have one of Music/TomJones' songs be what causes the Martians' heads to explode? How cool would it have been to have the climax be Tom Jones on the back of a flatbed singing "Shes a Lady" or "What's New, Pussycat?", instead of him running into the woods and contributing basically nothing to plot?

** Do the [[spoiler: Martians' heads rupture]] from a specific frequency and pitch of the sound waves from Slim Whitman's vibrato or is the music really just that terrible to them?

* {{Applicability}}: The scene where the president tries to form a truce with the Martians and delivers a great RousingSpeach to do so, [[spoiler:only for them to kill him]] is nowadays often compared to attempts to form peace with other countries.

* AcceptableTargets: Congress. ''InUniverse'', at least one human finds their slaughter at the hands of the Martians hilarious, as did many of the audience members.

*** It is also mentioned somewhere (can't remember where) that that [[SingleTear Single]] [[ManlyTears manly tear]] the leader sheds? thats how the Martians Vomit!