The Martian:
During a mission to Mars, an intense storm hits, separating astronaut and botanist Mark Watney from the rest of his team. Believing him dead, they return to their primary space station to return to Earth. Watney is miraculously alive, however, and must figure out a way to survive on the harsh planet until rescue can arrive for him.
This movie's hype was pretty amazing considering ti's just a run-of-the-mill sci-fi movie that just happens to have an ensemble cast of famous stars. I haven't read the novel by Andy Weir, though I fully intend to, so I'm judging the film solely on its' own merits. Matt Damon is a very strong lead, with some nice funny dialogue, but never does he feel too tongue-in-cheek, he knew when to play the situation straight and play out the gravity of his situation. The ensemble cast is too big to list here, but I felt they were all fine. A bit typecast (and cast solely on name recognition it seems on the whole), but decent. Major critique though: there was not one supporting role I felt could've not been filled by any other actor and been just as fine. Everyone was just sort of bland, as with most ensembles nowadays. I also found it amusing that they made Tolkien references, when Sean Bean, featured here, was in the Lord of the Rings films. But they aren't the real focus of the film. Damon is the glue that holds the film together, and, of course, the suspense.
For a science fiction movie that isn't an adventure film this story had some great suspense. Every problem that is solved only serves as a catalyst for the next problem, so the movie never feels boring. Not only that, but there is a surprisingly squirm-inducing self-surgery scene early on that was fairly ballsy for a big movie like this to feature. And for an October release, this has all the polish of a summer blockbuster. It remind me of Interstellar quite a bit.
Much like that film from last fall, this is a movie that tests your patience. It is almost draining, as so much has happened by the end that you want to feel invested, but ultimately feel like you should just go home and go to sleep. And, much like Interstellar, some of the designs felt a little too reminiscent of other science fiction efforts (including Ridley Scott's own Prometheus).
Drew Goddard (the writer) also exhausted their two "fuck" limit for a PG-13 film far too early. If you don't known the MPAA generally likes to keep the uses of the word "fuck" in PG-13 films to about one or two tops, excluding inaudible uses and completely excluding uses in the sexual connotation. This film used it up a little too early, and got away with it a few times (mouthing the word, not saying it), but at certain times, (Minor Spoiler Here) the character is typing a message and is using the word "fuck", and other characters' reactions suggest it is uncensored, but then it is censored on-screen. Not only does that take me out of the movie for being lazy, it also completely seems out of character for Watney to self-censor.
Ridley Scott has produced better work than this, so it is sad to see that this is most successful film of his career. However, The Martian is an enjoyable, if predictable and patience-straining movie that relies a lot of name recognition in its' casting choices. It's about on par with Interstellar for me, in terms of both entertainment factor and overlong run time (and both feature a stranded Matt Damon). 6.5/10 stars.
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