The Martian

I’d really hate to be Mark Watney. But then again, if I was as smart as he was and as resourceful of a person and had the balls to even attempt to survive on a deserted death trap of a planet for what could be years, I might not mind it as much.

Taking place in the distant future, The Martian is a movie about human triumph and ingenuity and imagines what it would be like once we finally manage to send a manned mission to the Red Planet. The set-up is simple: during a freak storm that causes the crew of the Ares III to abort their mission (and the planet itself), Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is struck by a piece of broken debris and, thought to be dead, is left on Mars while the rest of the crew makes their premature escape back to Earth. Now, armed with only a finite amount of supplies and help “only” 140 million miles away, Watney charges himself with the task of surviving until he can contact Earth or die trying.

Let the science-ing ensue.

First off, let me say that I’m barely a quarter of the way through the book this movie is based on so unlike my previous review of The Scorch Trials where I did indeed read the novel, I won’t be harping on book to film differences at all. Tough luck if anyone wanted to know how faithful the movie version is, sorry not sorry.

Anyway, as with any good sci-fi film, The Martian firmly plants its feet in both the real world of science and the fictional version of it. More often than not however, it’s the real, grounded science that shines through and gives the film its charm and drive. Every time Watney comes up against seemingly overwhelming odds, he is forced to “science the shit out of this” in order to survive and it is here where the movie is at its best. It’s truly amazing that for every bad thing that happens and for every potential threat that looms, Watney has a scientific and (most of the time) dangerous idea to fix it. Through personal logs via the ship’s various camera feeds, Watney documents himself as he tries to overcome the trials and tribulations he encounters, all the while trying not to lose himself and his faith that he will indeed survive to see Earth once again.

Damon excels in showing this internal struggle in his portrayal of Mark Watney and I love the fact that he was able to play most scenes with a twinkle in his eye and a sly smirk on his face; practically laughing at the situation he is in, while at the same time being able to switch on the fly to being disheartened, stressed, angry and emotional all within the span of a scene or two. Once on Mars, Watney is a character shaped by his surroundings and Damon brings the necessary clout to show what kind of toll that would take on a man given these unfair circumstances.

There’s a moment towards the end of the film where Damon somehow manages to meld a wide gambit of emotion into a few second shot that sums up everything his character has been going through since being left behind. It’s heartbreaking and rejuvenating all at the same time and shows just how well cast this film is.

Other than Damon, pretty much all of the other casting choices are spot on. Most are well known faces and serve their characters well, but the one issue I had was that there were far too many of them vying for screen time to be truly effective in their roles. The main secondary characters like Jeff Daniels’ character or the crew of Ares III are fleshed out relatively well, but when I see an awesome actor pop up for literally a minute or two of screen time (Donald Glover especially), I’m left wanting more. It’s not that these characters are unnecessary because they’re pretty pivotal to the screenplay, it’s just that there is so much time in between appearances that it sometimes felt a little forced bringing them back into the fold.

On the flipside, when it comes to the idea of being stranded on Mars, it seems like a terribly depressing and scary thought, but for practically the entire runtime Watney doesn’t ever really seem to be in that much trouble to begin with. Sure it sucks being left alone on an uninhabitable planet but when we see how resourceful and smart Watney is as he deals with each problem, I never really worried about what would happen to him and it’s here where a lot of my problems with the movie stem from.

Never once (save for an amazingly tense Gravity-esque ending sequence) did I feel on edge during the numerous catastrophic events that unfold during the film. For every scene where something goes wrong there’s a scene that follows almost immediately that nulls the issue, which is fine and good since the main character is actually competent for once, but it doesn’t change the fact that it lessens the impact of the struggle Watney faces. I never felt any sense of urgency to the story even with everything at stake and if I’m being honest, I felt almost bored at times since nothing was really grabbing my attention outright. This may be more of a pacing issue than anything since long times are spent both on Earth, on Mars and on Ares III, but it’s still something that I wish was addressed a bit more.

As for Mars itself, boy what a sight to behold. I don’t know where Ridley Scott shot these scenes but I’ll be damned if (and when) we finally make it to Mars that it doesn’t looks exactly like what is up onscreen.

Another solid entry in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi repertoire, The Martian is more of a feel good movie that makes you want to believe in mankind’s future among the stars rather than make you scared half to death about the thought of the cold vacuum of space slowing killing you.