The world we live in right now is a crying shame. Anyone of an
intellectual bent is looked at with derision and mistrust, in favor of idiot
reality stars or non-professionals. Those who specialize in anything scientific
are so few that we pump them up as glorified celebrities. Bill Nye the Science
Guy is our chief climate change expert! Something's got to change to make
science cool, fun, and relevant to the next generation, and Ridley Scott's The Martian may be the film that does it.
The Martian is one of the straight-up geekiest movies
you're ever likely to see, but also one of the most thrilling. Think of it as a
two-hour cinematic celebration of the sheer awesomeness of science and smart
people in general. Based on Andy Weir's book, the Drew Goddard-penned story is
remarkably simple in premise but broad in potential impact. Matt Damon plays
astronaut Mark Watney, a botanist on the Ares III team exploring Mars until a
sudden storm raises holy Hell. Watney is hit with flying debris and presumed
dead, leaving Commander Lewis (Jessica Chastain) no choice but to leave him
behind to save the rest of her crew. Little do they know that Watney is still
very much alive and stranded alone on the distant planet. If he hopes to have
any chance of survival he'll have to "science the shit out of this",
and science the shit out of it he does.
Weir's book is a highly technical read
full of science gibberish about molecules and complex machinery nobody will
understand. But it's also completely entertaining due to the playful
personality of Watney, who creates a video log chronicling every facet of his
survival with a sense of humor. Using that big brain of his, Watney cooks up a
way to grow food on a planet that can't sustain life, create water out of nothing,
and even figures out a way to communicate with NASA back on Earth. By the way,
those NASA folks are losing their heads over Watney being alive. Smartly, we
spend just as much time on Earth with NASA's resident geniuses (played by
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Sean Bean, Mackenzie Davis and
more) as they try to conjure up a way to bring Watney home. They're also forced
to deal with the PR fallout as every human being on Earth is drawn to Watney's
plight. What The Martian envisions
is an unprecedented level of cooperation between nations in the pursuit of
greater knowledge and discovery. If only we had that today, but darn it we have
to worry about balancing our budget or something.
Ultimately it's Damon who shoulders much
of the emotional burden, and this is one of his finest performances. Watney is,
for lack of a better word, a jokester. He's the team clown, but he's also
unnaturally brilliant and recognizes how dire his circumstances are. Watney's
personality keeps the mood light and the momentum moving, but the side effect
is that his predicament never feels quite as dangerous as it should. Watney
could die at any moment from any number of freak circumstances, but it rarely
seems that way. The adaptation trims away many of the grimmest obstacles he
faces, probably so the story never gets too heavy for audiences who just want a
feel-good story of survival and human ingenuity. There are some other
changes, especially to the story's conclusion, that were clearly done to create
a more crowd-pleasing effect, but those familiar with the novel may find them
jarring. Some of the characters were altered significantly from the book, but
when the cast consists of Sebastian Stan, Kate Mara, Michael Pena, Aksel
Hennie, and more you probably won't care. They're all tremendous and add little
details to their characters that make the most of very limited screen time.
This is the most enjoyable movie Ridley
Scott has done in quite some time. After The
Counselor, Exodus: Gods
and Kings, and Prometheus it's a pleasure to see him making
smart, funny, purely entertaining movies again. While the visual layout bears
more than a few similarities to Prometheus, the tone couldn't be more different
and you can tell Scott loved every minute of making this movie. The Martian is as good of an adaptation
as fans of Weir's book could have hoped for, and if we're lucky it will help
people realize how cool science can be. It might also save your life if ever
trapped in outer space.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
