The Martian Movie Review

 To achieve the movie known as “The Martian” you need to successfully fill out this simple formula: “Cast Away” + “Apollo 13” + Matt Damon in distress. That is all the knowledge you need to know to determine every single beat in this entire film. But surprisingly it works.

“The Martian” is directed by the great Ridley Scott, the director of “Alien”, “Gladiator”, “Blade Runner” and “Black Hawk Down”; clearly one of the best directors alive. The film was written by notorious screenwriter Drew Goddard who made the hilariously, atrociously brilliant indie horror film “Cabin in the Woods”. Clearly there is a lot of talent behind this film. Does it live up to expectations?

First of all, it has to be said that “The Martian” has one of the best screenplays written in years. It nailed about ninety percent of the science put on display and it does an excellent job at explaining it to the non-nerds in the audience. The story is also very well put together. It doesn't waste any time with exposition, it doesn't spend seventy percent of the screen-time with character development (the characters are fleshed out as the action is taking place), and it has a certain level of conflict that is not seen in movies very often.

The film stars Matt Damon as astronaut Mark Watney who is accidentally left for dead on Mars after a storm and must survive on the barren planet until NASA can rescue him. The film has a simple structure: problem is presented, problem is solved, problem is presented and problem is solved. Glossing over many plot points, that is the basic structure.

Watching Watney “science the shit” out of this situation was not only incredibly interest but incredibly fun and enjoyable as well. It is not easy to nail both of those things so it must be said.

Watney also has a very positive attitude towards the situation he is in. Every time something bad happens he finds the humor in it so for that reason the film was immensely comical. I honestly did not expect it to be as hilarious as it was.

However, keeping the film's structure in mind, many of the events were disappointingly predictable. Whenever you think “something bad is going to happen”, you will very correct. The film is also quite a bit longer than it needs to be. The film is two and a half hours and should be more like two. But despite this run time, I was never bored. I was always interested to see what was going to happen next and how Watney will solve a particular problem.

I have not mentioned any characters because besides Mark Watney and Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels), there really wasn't any characters that I can say were memorable. Not that the actors portraying these characters were bad because they weren't. There just wasn't enough character actions to develop the characters to their fullest. I know that I said before that it was a plus that they didn't waste any time with unnecessary development, I just hoped for some short banter between supporting characters before big moments that would have fleshed them out just a little bit more.

But overall, I enjoyed the hell out of “The Martian” and I can't wait to watch it again. There were some minor problems I had with it here and there but overall it was really well done. I am so glad Ridley Scott is still capable of making science fiction classics that he made in the seventies and eighties.

4.1 out of 5 stars