Scott was also visionary in casting Matt Damon. This is Damon’s movie and it’s hard to find a flaw in the way he brings Watney to life. This is really the best version of this possible story.
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Reading the synopsis for The Martian, you might think that Ridley Scott wanted to direct his own version of Gravity – another movie about an astronaut doing everything he can to survive in the desolate, uncaring void of space.
Though the movie differed from the book in parts, the underlying themes carry throughout.
In the race to the escape craft, Watney is struck by a piece of flying debris, lost, and presumed dead. With a search mission out of the question, the team commander gives the order to evacuate, leaving Watney behind. Shortly after the crew escapes, audience is shown Watney awakening from the storm. Thus begins the suspense: Will Watney be saved? He cultivates a potato garden and converts his battery-powered rover vehicle to nuclear-powered. By the time he’s made it back to the sealed habitation pod, he realises just what a bad situation he is in – all alone on a hostile, arid, airless planet and without enough food to sustain himself until a rescue mission arrives. It also bears a strong resemblance to another movie, 2000′s “Mission to Mars”.
While the movie could have focused entirely on Watney stranded on Mars, it is all the more interesting for including supporting characters on Earth and in the return shuttle. The props were so convincing, they could nearly replace NASA technology. The use of a ship’s video log allows for much exposition and draws back to the hand typed mission log format of the novel’s first person narrative.
As well as Watney’s constant positivity throughout, the film’s disco soundtrack keeps things on the up.
Castaway and Duncan Jones’s Moon are other touchstones as Damon delivers a terrifically nuanced performance, showing the strains – physically and mentally -of his isolation.
While the rest of the cast is fantastic, Damon is the real star of the picture.
Nasa has come in for a few flack for collaborating so much with a blockbuster movie production, and has been accused of timing its historic announcement about water being found on the Red Planet last month to promote the release of the film.
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Nasa collaborated on the film with 20th Century Fox Entertainment, providing guidance on production design and technical consultants, including Jim Green, director of planetary science, and Dave Lavery, program executive for solar system exploration. Well, none of them could get close to the roaring success of Matt Damon starer “The Martian“.
