Besides that, the Martian winds are tilting their space ship so they have to leave quickly. It’s a glass-half-full look at humanity told from three points of view.
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Playing roles that include NASA officials, astronauts and scientists is a cast that includes Jeff Daniels, Kristin Wiig, Michael Pena, Sean Bean, Kate Mara and actor/rapper/writer Donald Glover in a small but standout role of a young scientist who figures out the framework of a rescue for Watney.
Matt Damon isn’t new to space, fictionally speaking.
Nervous about spending too much under-populated time on Watney’s red planet, the film devotes much of its attention to the returning crew (who josh blokeishly like contestants on A Question of Sport) and the panicked administrators (headed by Jeff Daniels as a more benign version of his character in the upcoming Steve Jobs). Watching him sitting around in Mars, listening to disco and talking to himself, you might just find yourself wishing the rescue mission gets delayed because it would mean a few more time alone with Mark.
NASA’s announcement was huge, and on different scales of measure, so could be Scott’s movie. “It makes you realize, ‘I’m a better actor because of these guys'”.
Opening in theaters nationwide on Friday, “The Martian” stars Matt Damon as Mark Watney, an astronaut who is separated from his crew during a mission on Mars and presumed dead after his fellow astronauts evacuate the planet. Director Ridley Scott revealed recently that prior to the shooting of the movie, he got in touch with Jim Green, the director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA, and talked with him for several hours. It’s that kind of movie.
So one thing is clear at least – he’s gonna need to science the shit out of this.
The only issue is the film – it never feels like Mark Watney is in danger. Why is this a unique character in a movie with 30 characters? “So we stopped the run immediately and recalled the stamps”.
At the center of it all, Damon gives a quietly intense performance as the stranded astronaut. His low-key charm pays off as the actor shows Watney deploying his intelligence and a wickedly droll humor through tiny victories and life-threatening setbacks. In many ways, it’s a geek fantasy scenario where the entire world rallies together to solve a problem and NASA has infinite funding, but it’s hard not to get caught up in the film’s cheerleading regardless.
The concept may be creaky but a good story stands regardless and this adaptation of Andrew Weir’s bestseller is clever, gripping and surprisingly amusing.
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Complaints of overstuffing aside, The Martian deserves recognition for managing to identify and strike the ideal tone to differentiate itself from other space-based films. Breathtaking, exhilarating, and emotionally resonant, Ridley Scott’s film delivers on the promises of recent science-fiction films like Gravity, Interstellar, and Scott’s own Prometheus.
