Sir Ridley Scott is finally back on track. There's no argument that his last couple films have not been up to his standard. However, now he has gone back to his roots to bring us an adaptation of the sci-fi novel by Andy Weir The Martian.
The story itself is pretty straightforward. Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead when stuck with debris during a storm on Mars. When the rest of his crew decides to abort and he turns out to be alive, Watney must ration his remaining resources in an attempt to same himself and make contact with NASA. Despite the familiar storyline (can you say Cast Away meets Apollo 13?), only a true mastermind behind the camera can give the story so much depth and make it so enthralling.
The cast is definitely one of the best ensembles of the year. Everyone does fantastic with the roles given to them, namely Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jeff Daniels. And while everyone does a great job in the movie, the man whose shoulders the film truly rests on is Matt Damon, and he excels in every scene he is in. The audience is always eager to follow Damon's successes and failures on Mars. Damon is so good at playing a wise- cracking scientist and showing us what it might actually be like to get left on Mars alone. With Damon's character, the movie is allowed to delve into themes about what makes us human and our drive to help one another.
We have been graced with several poor adaptations of mars in recent times from the likes of the pitiful "Red planet" and "Mission to mars" and I don't think Hollywood wanted to finance big budget sci fi films after several flops… but then blockbusters "Gravity" and "Interstellar" came round and we all know how amazing they were… This brings us to the newest member of the Science fiction film family 'The Martian'. Ridley Scott created some Sci Fi masterpieces in Aliens and Bladeunner so when I heard he was attached to this film I was already anticipating this one. The premise is simple. A manned mission to mars in the not too distant future encounters a freak windstorm. Forced to evacuate the planet in the chaos they drop everything, leave behind astronaut Mark Watney believing he is dead and begin the journey back to earth. In actual fact Mark survived but has been injured after being impaled by his communication antenna. With no way of contacting NASA or his crew and the next mission to arrive on Mars another 4 years away not to mention dwindling food supplies Mark is left with a pretty tricky situation.
The film doesn't waste any time establishing its story. Within less than 15 minutes we go through a mission abort that leads to the team of astronauts hastily leaving the red planet, with the protagonist left for dead and finding himself alone, struggling against apparently impossible odds as he tries to figure out how to stay alive until the next mission arrives. The pace is in fact so fast over this opening act that compounded by Wantey's no-nonsense, unsentimental stance towards his ordeal seems a little underwhelming (in terms of dramatic impact). But as things start to go south and unforeseen disasters snowball both on the terrestrial and martian front, the Martian quickly escalates into a thrilling, epic in scale tale of survival.
Contrary to what you might have picked up from trailers, this isn't a tale about Watney and his struggle for survival. There is a good deal of that too, but the movie opts for an Apollo 13-like approach, with several intertwined story lines running concurrently on Earth, space and Mars, as several teams try to find a way to put a rescue mission together before Watney's supplies run out. There is a large and great ensemble cast surrounding Matt Damon's main character that adds a lot to the movie. That being said, the choice comes at the expense of segments dealing with Watney's isolation on Mars and its psychological impact. This is more Apollo 13 than Cast Away in space.
Matt Damon manages to accomplish that so perfectly i can;t imagine anyone else doing a better job as astronaut Mark Watney. This is by far one of the best performances of his career and he has done a lot of amazing stuff in the past. He manages to carry the film on his shoulders with ease and was so fun to watch. He is such a world class talent to be able to portray this fictional character in a way that made me at many times think that i was watching some kind of true story, he captured all of the emotion and struggles this guy was going through so well, and just added layers to his character. Not only was this a serious and at times emotional film but it was also hilarious and much of those comedic elements came from Matt Damon. The quick one liners all hit and made the entire full theatre laugh every time.
But he did not do it alone, Damon was accompanied by one of the most incredibly talented supporting casts of the year and they only add to the enjoyment of the film. Heres some of the supporting cast to give you an idea; Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Pena, Sean Bean, Sebastian Stan, Donald Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Kate Mara.... WOW thats big. Jessica Chastain has and will always remain a good actress. At least I feel so. She plays an astronaut who feels guilty for having left Mark Watney on Mars during a fierce storm which had forced her and her colleagues to abandon the mission they were trying to accomplish. What's ironic (and FUN THING) is the fact that Ms. Chastain and Mr. Damon starred in Interstellar too. In that movie Damon had betrayed Chastain's father. In this movie Chastain is determined to rescue Damon from Mars. Ridley Scott has directed a movie which is not tremendously preachy, isn't overtly emotional and has doses of unexpected humour here and there.
94%·Rotten Tomatoes
8.5/10·IMDb
81%·Metacritic
9/10 - Verdict
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