The Flaming Lips survive. Brightly synthetic, they make a great noise full of corn and cheese. Wisdom is hard-won, humor a means to cope. They have a ton of heart.
Christmas On Mars, though, is a bit boring. No-one cares that the film – a homemade, half-baked space oddity – is far from expert. There’s just nothing to hang your hat on, including the soundtrack which is Eno-lite. (The Lips make soundtracks to films that don’t exist. Mars would seem to have it the other way around.) So the movie is self-consciously bad, but should have broken the fourth wall “a la” Mystery Science Theater 3000. I suspect that would made the film a lot more fun.