This wasn't really what I expected. Turns out, "The Martian" wasn't entirely about a man stranded on Mars. Sure, there was a lot of that, but there was almost as much time spent back on Earth with NASA, planning and plotting the rescue of Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon).
This was also quite funny. I'm not a Matt Damon fan, but he was really easy to pull for and there was nice chemistry between him, NASA, and the crew that had accidentally left him stranded on Mars.
It's gotten to the point where a lot of special effects are so good, you just forget about them and lose yourself in the story. "The Martian" was one of those instances. The red planet was incredible.
I did think that the world coming together, pulling for Watney's rescue, was well intended but a bit corny. Maybe that's because I've been reading about the horrors of World War I and the millions of dead that were basically brainwashed into fighting a meaningless war. I've gotten cynical to the point of not believing so many resources would have been brought to saving just one man. Or maybe even more cynical in thinking it shouldn't have been attempted.
Watching what Ridley Scott has created here has made me want to go back and give "Prometheus" another try (almost). And while I was watching, I couldn't help but think how much I preferred "The Martian" over the other most recent near-Earth space adventure, "Gravity".
The Martian is an amazing movie that is carried more than anything else by the protagonist and the suspense the film constantly creates.
Matt Damon was undeniably the perfect cast for this role. I cannot think of many actors that could make spending an hour and a half with a single, isolated person so god damn enjoyable. This is made possible with what surely must be a mix of the wonderful character of Mark Watney and the perfect execution by Damon. Mark is a capable, intelligent botanist that is faced with a situation so dire that most of us would probably collapse in despair. Instead, Mark lightens up with his never-ending optimism and lightheartedness. As he explained to his students at the very end, when thinking that you will most likely die, you can either accept it and work on a solution or fail. It is so satisfying to see him immediately work towards a more than clever solution, make the absolute most of his situation and document all of it by joking around on the video logs, giving us a unique look into his daily life as the most isolated human in this universe. Not only is it fantastic by its own, it also gives the film an unusual permission for exposition dumps, since it is very much believable that he would talk to himself and the camera, leaving behind a legacy, even if he dies, to keep himself sane. His reactions are nothing you would expect when hearing about the (great) premise of this movie. Nevertheless, they are never unbelievable. He is not a one-dimensional character, we see months and years of his work crumble before him and he reacts properly, he is frustrated, has fits of rage, but also jests and dances and laughs and all put together make a very enjoyable 2 hours.
As a result of this, the comedy in this movie is outstanding. Even though it is very much an intense, gritty movie with a lot of weight to it, you will end up laughing aloud at your screen or at the very least smile at the silliness in an otherwise very desperate situation. So, yes, this movie focuses mostly on one character and so naturally the supporting cast has to suffer under it, right? Yes, but that doesn't take away anything from the movie. Each person has distinct traits and even though we see very little of them, you'll grow to love most of them, simply because they seem to have such a complex dynamic off-screen. This is also helped by the fact that even for the most minor roles they use an all-star, talented cast.
Now, onto the atmosphere. Ridley Scott does know how to make wonderful establishing shots, but more than that it's the scenery that makes the feeling of this film. The technology, the clothes, the spaceships, the tools, it all looks like it could be a true story, happening in just a decade from now. Due to this, it has weight to it that not many science fiction movies can accomplish. I believe this kind is called "hard science-fiction" and The Martian definitely falls under that category. It feels as if the science behind it all drives the plot forward, as problems arise from the limits of the near-future technology and it's Mark's understanding of basic science that enables him to survive, not some plot holes or ex-machinas. From the beginning to the very end the audience believes that everything can and will go wrong, we feel with the character's overwhelming joy of his achievements and the subsequent loss of everything, which leads to a constant feeling of danger and unpredictability. The often unassuming shots, such as during the night in the primitively patched up base of operations and the docking scene on the space station, in both of which nothing bad happens, add a lot to that.
So, all in all, even though the collaboration with NASA may have lead to too much time spent on Earth, as theorized by Chris Stuckmann, it added a whole new layer to the film. It is noticeable that the writers and the filming crew sent hundreds of questions to NASA, made hundreds of photos and, to be frank, I don't mind that this benefits NASA in popularizing space travel.
The Martian depended on Matt Damon's performance in the lead role. In contrast to spiritual predecessors like Gravity and Castaway it wasn't a one-man show--there's a murders row of supporting actors and an important story of what's going on back home--but the film spent a great deal of time with Damon's Mark Watney and his lonely trials and tribulations on a desolate planet. That meant that for much of the movie, Damon alone had to convey his character's distress, his resolve, his humor, and his humanity, with no one but the camera to talk to, and he did it with flying colors. I have yet to see many of the big films and lauded performances of 2015, but it's hard to imagine many roles with a degree of difficulty like this one, and the performance Damon delivered more than lived up to the challenge.
Part of what makes Watney likable and endearing enough that the audience not only tolerates spending the film with him, but invests in his plight and attempts at rescue, is the humor in the film. It's not surprising in a film penned by Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum Drew Goddard, but despite the extreme premise of the film and the world's-watching stakes of the conflict, the dialogue is filled to the brim with laughs about the silly and mundane in the midst of the weighty circumstances Watney and the team trying to help him back home, and the film includes so many of those small human moments that help viewers buy into a plot focused alternatively on solving science problems and technobabble.
Those human moments--from demeaning then giving into Commander Lewis's taste in music to reassuring your boss that a profane kiss off might have been meant in a positive way--are important, because beyond Watney, most of the film's characters are quick sketches. That never hurts the film, however, because even when the characters feel stock--Donald Glover as the unorthodox young engineer, Jeff Bridges as the kind-hearted but pragmatic head of the agency--each of the actors in a stellar cast sells their role in the supporting ensemble with aplomb and each of them has just enough flavor to make them distinct.
The tone of the film helps on that front as well. The way The Martian balances the crestfallen sense that Watney is doomed, the joy in his sisyphean efforts to survive, the tension in the moments where he struggles to find a solution or the efforts to rescue him hit a setback, and the simple but sweet reminders that these are human beings who do silly things even in a crisis. Keeping things light, while never sacrificing the emotion or the stakes of the narrative is a difficult task, but Goddard's script and Ridley Scott's direction manage it with style.
It's hard to believe that Scott is the same director who unleashed Prometheus on the world just a few short years ago. Whereas one space-bound film, albeit one that hews more toward science fiction, is practically incoherent in terms of its plot, The Martian builds plausibly and organically, to where despite the film's 2+ hour runtime, the narrative progresses so smoothly, and the characters' decisions and actions seem so natural and logical in that progression, that you barely feel it.
At the same time, Scott makes the most of his setting and his stars. The production design, from the realistic but futuristic ships and equipments in space to the rust-colored vistas Scott sweeps through in wide shots, add to both the reality and the beauty of the film. Scott also frames much of the film through third-person video screens, whether it's Watney's video journals or CNN coverage of a NASA press conference, which gradually fade into a more traditional shot, conveying both a sense of verisimilitude in these somewhat outlandish events, but also a personal, intimate sense of place, especially with the film's protagonist. In total, it creates beautiful images to wow the viewer with the scope and magnitude of the setting and the problem, but also brings the audience closer to the protagonist.
The film's greatest achievement is how it fosters a complete buy-in with Watney's struggle. In a film that feels like a cross between Hatchet and Apollo 13, the way The Martian shows its main character solving problem after problem with good humor and without making him seem like an implausible wunderkind breeds affection and investment. In many survival films along these lines, the endgame feels inevitable, and the emotional stakes of the climax suffer. The Martian does falter a bit in manufacturing additional, piled on drama at the film's close, but there's such a catharsis in its conclusion, in the form of a beautifully composed scene that, good-or-bad, represents the culmination of the personal struggle of Watney, and the delirious efforts of Vincent Kapoor (a crackling Chiwetel Ejiofor) on the ground.
The Martian features the trappings of classic film--the dizzying shots, the foxhole compatriot mentality, the best and brightest scrambling to do right, and the man against nature narrative, replete with some leafy green symbolism--but it uses it all in service of the supremely human and nerdy. And it can boast a virtuoso performer who can amuse and enthrall with nothing more than a disco soundtrack and a potato. The excitement, pathos, and laughter Scott, Goddard, Damon, and their collaborators are able to wring from what is often a very solitary journey is no small achievement, and The Martian offers a feel-good story that earns every bit of the feeling.
7/10
A solid survival flick; good but could have been great.
Matt Damon puts in a very good performance as Mark Watney, astronaut-botanist stranded on Mars., The rest of the cast I found to be rather anonymous and flat. Sean Bean looked like he'd turned up to the wrong film and Jeff Daniels as the head of NASA didn't really work for me. As for the rest, they were the usual bunch of stereotypes and one-deminsional characters that nobody ever cares about. That said, Watney really is the only character that matters in this film and Damon was superbly cast for this role.
The movie is aesthetically stunning, well paced and very well directed. Watney's trials and tribulations are engaging, but I often found myself feeling it was a little too dumbed down ("I'm going to science the shit out of it") and the comic relief a little too overused leaving the viewer without any real sense of the danger or despair Watney would surely have felt in such a situation. The only time I felt any of this anxiety was in the last 15 minutes and then I really was on the edge of my seat!
Despite a few shortfalls I found it a very enjoyable film; it was entertaining, interesting and engaging.
The first time I watched The Martian was in theaters and I remember absolutely loving it. Coming at it for a rewatch was a little bit depressing, particularly after reading the book. I should have known better.
The movie itself is not bad, not at all. Ridley Scott did a great job with this movie and adapting it to the screen. There were a lot of great elements to the original story that got cut, but it was for a reason. Sometimes it's not easy to adapt the little details to the big screen. It's just not possible without making a 12 hour film.
The movie captured the most hilarious of the funny moments and the worst punchlines of the dad jokes, all while doing justice to the story itself. Matt Damon really brought Mark Watney alive. He did such a great job in this role. Some of the Earth supporting cast were great as well, like Chiwetel Ejiofor as Venkat (Vincent) Kapoor and Donald Glover as Rich Purnell.
I'm keeping my rating of this show from when I first watched it, because my impression of the film has been muddied since reading the original story. All in all this is a pretty good show with some great music, a great cast, and a lot of impressionable moments. It's cheeky and action-packed, while still retaining the gravity of the situation for the serious, emotional moments.
Loved it.
Matt Damon is left for dead during the rushed evacuation of a small-scale Martian expedition. It's like Apollo 13 on steroids, mixed with short dashes of 127 Hours, MacGyver and Survivorman. Much less of a one-man show than I was expecting, which gives the film a little more spirit but also a more conventional structure. I think it would've been a far more interesting, daring picture if we'd seen more personal video journals from space and less debate around a round table at NASA, if just because we've seen the latter film several times already.
Damon is excellent, bringing a blend of hopeless desperation and punchy good humor that gives him credence as both a technical expert and a likable, relatable everyday guy. The supporting cast is scattered with some strange choices, though - Kristen Wiig in a dead-serious role and Sean Bean as a kind-hearted supervisor are particularly out of place - which left me enjoying the scenes with Damon alone in the red landscape much more than the rescue effort.
Still, the epic moments far outweigh the sub-standard ones, there's a strong sense of humor beneath all the suspense, and the visuals are really pretty incredible. Bonus points for getting so much of the science right, too. I'm conditioned to expect a lot of flaws when I dig deeper into sci-fi like this, but apart from one notable exception (the weather on Mars), the experts looked at this one and said "Yeah, that could actually work." Cool stuff.
The Martian is Ridley Scott showing why he is the revered director he is. He gets fabulous performances from a stellar cast (no pun intended) moves the story along at a rip-roaring pace and wrings every piece of emotion, humour, and drama out of the film that can be done. Drawing from an equally fantastic novel by Andy Weir the only difficult task the makers must have had was which parts to trim down or remove to fit the riveting story into the 144 minutes running time. Wisely the extensive and wholly appropriate humour was left into the narrative. This is nearly as perfect a conversion of the novel to film as I’ve seen in a long time.
Recreating the surface of Mars is a triumph and you can truly believe you are looking at the beautiful but desolate surface of the planet in all of those scenes featuring Mark Watney. Matt Damon inhabits the skin of the character of Watney in such a way that you truly believe he is stranded on the surface of the planet, that he is a clever, funny and overall optimistic scientist. It is easily his best performance in many a year. He makes Mark Watney a man you want to see saved and then you want him to tell how it happened. It is, dare I say, a triumph. There I said it.
I often say films have an able or great supporting cast but in the case of The Martian this is more than true, the stalwart Jeff Daniels alongside Michael Pen, Sean Bean, Chiwetel Ejiofo, Kristin Wiig and Jessica Chastain all can carry a film on their own but add them into the mix, give them strong and distinct characters and you have a perfect set of actors all adding to the mix.
The story is about a man being thrust into an extraordinary set of circumstances and having to rely on his intelligence and skills to survive, yet no matter how good these are he has to rely on his comrades and friends to be equally as brave and ingenious. An exciting story of peril on an alien planet is a big theme but it is boiled down to the personal level and infused with a huge dose of realistic and frankly very funny humour and instead of getting a scary and potentially depressing film you get a film about friendship, risk and optimism. The best of us will work together to help others. It’s a good message about how good we can be – a rare theme nowadays
This is a very good film, watch it.
This is a very good book, read it.
This is a movie that I have to say that I have a bit of a difficulty in rating. Quite honestly I was sorely tempted to remove a star, or even two stars. Why? Because it is full of Hollywood nonsense, scientific errors, it is rather predictable and it did feel a bit like a Apollo 13 rip-off. Why did I not remove those stars? Well, it is rather entertaining even if, at times, I squirmed in my seat.
The movie starts of with a somewhat implausible event where a unexpected storm hits the Mars camp which forces the ground crew of the Mars mission to hurry back to the launch vehicle before it tilts over. The launch vehicle gradually tilts a degree at the time. Is it just me finding this strange? Would storms on Mars defy the usual rules of weather dynamics that they would exert a constant pressure which would cause a slow but constant tilt of a construct like that. No gusts, no change in pressure? And why would it gradually tilt at all? Once the force would be enough for the landing struts on one side to leave the ground it would pretty much tilt right away. Okay, I am being picky so lets give that a benefit of a doubt for the time being.
Obviously one guy is lost during the dramatic events. This is equally obviously 100% predictable. The fact that the guy is still alive after the rest of the crew blasted off is obviously also 100% predictable but then, this you should have pretty figured out from the title of the move after all.
A lot of the rest of the movie is following this guys quest for survival on Mars using the left over equipment at his disposal and the NASA crew on Earth trying to rescue him. Yes the NASA crew on Earth does discover that he is alive which, again, is pretty much predictable. Of course this gave Hollywood the opportunity to add a utterly dislikable political bureaucrat that is pretty much in the movie for one reason and one reason alone…to be dislikable. Personally I just found him tiresome. But then, Americans seems to like these kind of people given the kind of trash that we see being pushed towards the upcoming presidential elections…from both sides!
There are a lot of good stuff in the movie. Even though it is rather predictable there are some suspense in it, there are a lot of good scenery, and even though you pretty much knows what is going to happen you do feel like cheering for the hero. Given the script I think a lot of the actors did a rather good job of their roles.
If the script writers would have brought on some decent scientific advisors I would say this would have been a great movie but it was frequently goofed up with issues that was just stupid. Like digging down a nuclear reactor a few feet in the ground. What the f… good was that supposed to do? And the constant use of simple plastic and duct tape to seal the environment. Yeah, right. Sure, Mars do have some atmosphere so it is not vacuum we are talking about but then in other scenes they seemed to assume almost zero atmosphere and made quite a bit use of explosive decompression effects.
Okay, okay I am probably nitpicking quite a bit here but, unlike many Science Fiction movies, this one tries to give an impression of being within the realms of realism and it is just too full of classical Hollywood mishaps for my taste.
As I wrote above I still think it is a movie worth watching. It has some suspense, it is well done from a photographic point of view and the actors are doing a decent job. I think 7 out of 10 stars is a fair rating but it should certainly not have more.
Review by MightyMike91BlockedParent2015-10-03T21:08:31Z
Ridley Scot is back! After some less interesting movies he succeed to make an great one again! It isn't the greatest movie I have ever seen but I couldn't recall one fault or issues with this film. The acting was great especially with his carry Matt Damon! The rest of the cast did fairly good. Matt Damons character stranded on Mars and wants to find a way to survive until he is rescued. This is the main part of the film which was surprisingly funny. Mainly due to the optimistic attitude that Matt Damons character had. It was even funnier than some comedies I have seen this year. Besides that there are some really suspenseful scene with are handled very well by Ridley Scott. He build the suspense fairly slow but great. They also created a great setting of Mars, it really felt like a place which was gorgeously filmed.
Overall I would gave the film a 8,5 but unfortunately Trakt would allow me to give that many hearts so I rated it a 8. Simply because I liked my 9 rated films more than this one. Nevertheless I had a really good time with this entertaining, greatly directed and interesting film.