THE MARTIAN Review — Out of This World
Yay for science! If only my high school teachers could have made it this thrilling, this provocative, this crucial to my very existence, I might have been out curing cancer today, instead of writing this film review. Even though the special effects are fine, the acting is as good as you would expect, and Ridley Scott has come up with what is sure to be another blockbuster, science is the star of the film, and I think it deserves an Oscar.
The Martian is taken from Andy Weir’s runaway bestseller of the same name, and tells a riveting survival tale of one crew member’s effort to survive after his fellow astronauts leave him for dead on Mars. Thank heavens it was the botanist crew member, is all I can say.
If you read the book, you probably envisioned Matt Damon in your head, and that casting couldn’t have been more perfect. As for the rest? There are some heavy hitters like Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofer, Cate Mara, Sean Bean and Michael Pena, but they pretty much take a back seat to…science! Just about anyone could have played those parts. I will, however, say that I was thrilled to see MacKenzie Davis (Halt and Catch Fire) on the big screen. No one does a smart, sexy, nerdy girl better.
I feared that the film might have the heavy, long suffering feel of a film like Castaway, but Scott took a much lighter touch. Mark Watney, as written in the book, is more about trying to figure out answers than feeling lonely and sorry for himself. Damon does the character justice. And the film stays pretty much true to the book, right up to Watney’s ultimate Martian road trip, at which point you’ll notice that some of your favorite parts have been omitted, and the grand finale has been tinkered with considerably.
But you can forgive the the film for that. It would be impossible for filmmakers to include everything, and they, like I, skipped over some of the more technical details. They didn’t play that well on the page, and they would have been murder on the big screen–unless, of course, you’re a science geek. This film almost makes me wish I were…almost
Rated PG-13
2 Hours 14 Minutes
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THE MARTIAN Review — Out of This World
[…] trilogy, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Saving Private Ryan, Ford v Ferrari, Good Will Hunting and The Martian. The last two on that list won him Oscar nominations. He has three films in post-production, The […]