Matt Damon gives a remarkable performance, the story is excellent, the comedy is effective, and the movie is a solid adaptation from the best-selling novel. MORNING EDITION and Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan has seen it and is here to tell us what he thought.
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TURAN: He is the Martian, yes. As Watney tools around the Red Planet, Mars’ sandy beauty is alien, wondrous in ways yet also feels exceedingly real – just as much as it does inside the astronaut’s man-made workspace. He’s inadvertently left behind on Mars, 50 million miles away from Earth, all by himself. He can’t communicate with Earth. And he has to figure out how to stay alive. “Our service mission here was supposed to last 31 sols [Martian days]”. Watney’s video logs also feel organic, and necessary for his sanity and survival.
“The Martian” is a fun film, a space Western about the strength of the human spirit and the indomitable will. “Interstellar” tread similar thematic ground previous year but did so without the humour, the cheesy 70’s soundtrack or, most importantly, Matt Damon. For redundancy, they sent 68 sols worth of food, that’s for six people. He’s left alone but not forlorn, after a six-person expedition to the red planet led by Jessica Chastain’s Commander Lewis is forced to make an emergency evacuation. “Then I went to Houston and met with Tracy Caldwell Dyson, who’s an astronaut and talked to her”. “Luckily”, he vlogs, “I’m a botanist”. “Mars will come to fear my botany powers”. After the brilliant opening five minutes, that loneliness of his will become a whole lot more severe.TURAN: Me, too.
What follows is a Robinson Crusoe story of ingenuity, invention and perseverance. What are being celebrated here, in an admirably and appropriately thoughtful way, are intelligence, resourcefulness, expertise, and creative problem solving. For most part of the film, Damon is on his own and he believes the theme of rescuing and getting someone home is very powerful. The character has to project self-confidence and a good sense of humor, and Matt Damon does that beautifully. Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski, who previously worked with Scott on Exodus: Gods and Kings and The Counselor, adds his magical touch. What about this one, though? This is the first optimistic movie Ridley Scott has ever made in the future.
The Martian is one of the most beautifully shot films of the year. “Spuds are great for calories, but it’s hard to beat pulses for nutritional quality”, says scientist Roch Gaussoin. And it’s wonderful to see it unfold so beautifully.
“I was there for a bit…with Benedict (Cumberbatch) – so, we had an interesting time with the NASA stuff, but how to kind of fit that into everything there’s no way I could”, he said in an interview with Collider.
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As research the actors met with representatives from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the European Space Agency.
