Combining elements from CAST AWAY and APOLLO 13 (two Tom Hanks films), Ridley Scott’s THE MARTIAN taps into that fear with a fascinating look at the ingenuity and technical skills for survival using a charming Matt Damon to lead the way. Because it’s really hard to be hopeful and optimistic without being cheesy.
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Arguably the most popular movie set on Mars stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Douglas Quaid, whose life begins to unravel when he goes on a virtual vacation to the red planet, and loses the sense of what is real and what is not. Watch his full review in the video above. Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff” and Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” are employed to great effect, underscoring and commenting on the action.
That realism stems from source novel by Andy Weir, a self-professed science geek who worked to ensure that the story of Mark Watney, an astronaut who survives after being left for dead on Mars, felt genuine. Though Watney’s survival throws up multiple ethical and moral dilemmas, the biggest of which relates to whether or not to tell his returning colleagues that he’s still alive, nearly nothing in the film seems properly insurmountable. But Watney’s probably dead, his best friend, Chris Beck (Sebastian Stan) admits.
When you have Jessica Chastain, Jeff Bridges, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Pena, Kate Mara, Donald Glover and Kristin Wiig at your disposal, you use them. While I personally enjoyed 2012’s flawed PROMETHEUS, THE MARTIAN is arguably Ridley Scott’s best film in fifteen years, when he delivered 2001’s riveting BLACK HAWK DOWN. Or even let him know they’re watching. So the greatness of director Ridley Scott’s film isn’t in its resolution, but how we get there. It’s that kind of movie.
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Detailing (potatoes were grown at different times) and scientific accuracy (NASA was consulted) has been taken into account while also providing rough and ready translations for the scientifically challenged. There isn’t anything spectacular about his performance but it’s a solid one, relying on his inherent intelligence and likability, tempered by a little gallows humor. But Mr. Scott is very much his own artist, one whose reputation as a visual stylist has at times obscured that his great, persistent theme is what it means to be human. Enthralling, entertaining and empathetic, it’s got everything you’re looking for in a movie, all the while reminding us why outer space – and Mars in particular – holds our collective imagination so captive. Why is this a unique character in a movie with 30 characters? This is really the best version of this possible story. Ultimately it talks about how far we would go, what can be done to help Mark Watney considering his impossible situation. But, even lauded films like Gravity and Interstellar exist in our reality until they, shall we say, take a TURN.
