Movie Review: The Martian

Adventure/Drama/Sci-Fi

Rated – M

Duration –141mins

Release – October 2015

Director – Ridley Scott

Cast –Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor , Jeff Daniels, Michael Pena, Sean Bean, Kate Mara, Kristen Wiig

Mr Knight

All I have to say with The Martian is this... Well played NASA. I suspect the news of water being found on Mars being released at the same time as this space adventure is no coincidence. A great media stunt with the team work of director Ridley Scott and NASA.

When Interstellar was released in 2014, many people went into the cinema expecting a Starship Troopers-esq, alien killing fest and instead they got an intense space exploration/adventure. The Martian in this respect is quite similar.

Matt Damon leads an all-star cast in this space flick, as botanist astronaut, Mark Watney. Watney is part of a six person team, led by Jessica Chastain's Commander Melissa Lewis, of the Ares 3 mission, conducting tests and exploration on Mars. As in all adventures disaster strikes as a devastating dust storm strikes the Ares 3 base with debris striking Watney as the team plan to disembark and abort their mission, sending him into darkness with communication lost.

With Watney presumed dead and the lives of the remaining astronauts at risk, Commander Lewis makes the painstaking decision to leave Watney behind and escape Mars for Earth.

Watney proved to be more resilient than the team thought and hours later wakes half buried in the red planets soil. The next two and half hours of this movie unfolds into a story of a true willingness not to give up and like many of the sayings go, when you fall off the horse, dust yourself off and get back on.

Watney is presented with many challenges such as injury, growing food on a planet with no water or atmosphere, and all importantly making contact with NASA to get back home. With each challenge Watney takes it on with great intelligence and to my delight, humour.

The movie is filled with clever wit and wise cracks by Watney as he records his experience on the Ares 3 video logs. I personally enjoyed the stark contrasts between Matt Damon’s two recent astronaut characters, starting with his selfish, almost evil, Dr. Mann in Interstellar, to his funny, nice guy scientist Mark Watney. It was a Matt Damon Yin and Yang!

Damon is excellent but he isn't the only shining light in this one. Chastain again delivers that strong female role that she always does so well. Jeff Daniel's plays the dry, all business, boss of NASA perfectly with some similarities to his character in the TV series The Newsroom. Chiwetel Ejiofor is great as the Ares 3 team leader, Vincent Kapoor. Mix in other stars such as Michael Pena, Sean Bean, Kate Mara and Kristen Wiig and you find the whole movie flows with first class acting.

I was engaged throughout the entirety of this one and strongly recommend it to all with an interest in adventure, space, Bear Grylls, Macgyver-like survival, Interstellar, and the human spirit not to give up. When the screen faded to black and the credits rolled, people actually clapped at the end! That’s when you know it was a good one! 

Mrs Knight

While I’ve heard people complain that space adventure films seem to be the flavour of the month (or year) this didn’t bother me as Gravity and Interstellar were great films in my opinion. The Martian was no exception. In fact, I enjoyed this more than the others. It was its own film with a fantastic cast. It kept me glued, and had me on the edge of my seat with suspense one minute and laughing the next.

The Martian was much more than a space action epic. It had heart and humanity. During a mission on Mars, Astronaut and one of the best botanists in the world, Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead and left behind by his team, after being hit during an intense dust storm.

However, Watney survived and needs to figure out how to not only send a message to NASA, but ration and create food to stay alive until they can return. The film goes through the different phases of survival and shows us the different struggles he needs to work through.

On the other side, we see NASA and the team working out public relations strategies, hosting press conferences and figuring out how to get Mark Watney back to Earth. I enjoyed the contrast of seeing high stress panic from the suits on Earth in one scene to the calm nature from the man who is literally fighting for his life on Mars.

The film kept me engaged by Watney’s cleverness, wit and willingness to make the best from a seemingly impossible (and might I add, incredibly shite) situation. Matt Damon’s performance was perfect. I believed every word and can’t fault it. The whole cast was superb. With the exception of Kristen Wiig who played the Public Relations Director. Sorry to say, but she should stick to comedy.

I have said this before – I gauge movies on how many times I look at my phone. I only looked once and that’s because it lit up with a notification. It was still a long film, but I felt it finished when it should. There was very much one problem after the next and it didn’t drag. I liked how clever it was and that it had a bit of everything; humour, action, adventure and more.

I can’t recommend enough. A near perfect film in my opinion. I LOVED it!