2015 Movie Review: #4 The Martian

Ridley Scott welcome back! A great film altogether with an amazing performance by Matt Damon being rescued yet again, and it doesn't get old.

At the beginning of 2015, The Martian was definitely a film I had highly anticipated and it turned out to be a great movie. For a film with little to no action, about a man figuring out how to live alone on Mars (with no aliens involved), the premise sounded kind of boring but no where during the film did I find it slow paced.

Summary:

A team has been sent to Mars and was forced to abandon their mission due to severe weather conditions. However during this process a Botanist called Mark Watney gets injured and stranded on Mars alone.

The movie is about his survival abilities and how NASA figures out how to rescue their botanist. Mark uses his smarts to figure out how to grow potatoes and keep his sanity by talking to a camera to record his video logs with some awesome comedic touch.

NASA finds out about his survival and through Pathfinder, Mark and NASA found a way to communicate. A mission is put together with the help of the Chinese (CNSA) and a seemingly impossible task is done. Mark's team decides to ignore orders to return back to Earth and instead turn around to go save their friend.

After a few complications on arrival to Mars, the Hermes team go through some last minute changes to how to retrieve Mark and ultimately, they succeed.

The film ends with Mark safely back on Earth and now an instructor for astronaut candidates, teaching them survival on a planet 101.

Movie Review:

Watching this movie, there was a part of me that wanted to be alone on a planet with no one else there. The idea of it seems so peaceful until I realise that I would have most likely died early on in comparison to what Mark Watney did. Perhaps with some training I could...

The very fact that The Martian drew me into this thought showed how captivating the film experience was for me in the Cinema and on DVD. Matt Damon's performance was inspiring and his added humour made the film, without it the movie would be no where close to being on my top 10.

Perhaps one day Humans will go to Mars but this movie is as realistic as it can get. Set in 2035, this very well might as well be a documentary and boy was this movie believable. Matt Damon was the star but by no means did the rest of the cast lack anything. My rating for this film would be 9/10.

My Favorite Moment:

Easily, my favorite scene in this film was early on when Mark was stranded on Mars, he was in the Hab unit and was drinking juice... He finishes his beverage and shortly after says... "Fuck You Mars."

My Not-So Favorite Moment:

A scene that I did not like in the movie was one that felt of little consequence and it concerns the relationship with Kate Mara and The Winter Soldier. The moment where Sebastian Stan had to prep for the Watney rescue and Kate Mara comes out and "kisses" him on the helmet.

Perhaps in the book their relationship was more explored but in the movie, it felt oddly placed and out of no where, something that the movie could have done without.