The Martian (2015) Review
Director(s): Ridley Scott
Writer(s): Drew Goddard
Cast: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sean Bean, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Plot: Presumed dead and left behind by his Ares III crew, astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is forced to survive on Mars for the next four years until the next manned mission is able to rescue him.
Review: Who would’ve known there would be an actually good film by Ridley Scott after years of creative drought? And yet, here we are. Adapted from Andy Weir’s science fiction novel of the same name by Drew Goddard, Scott’s The Martian strands an astronaut on Mars and forces him to “science the shit” out of his predicament in what is essentially Cast Away (2000) on the barren, desolate red planet. And for what it’s worth, The Martian pulls off its myriad of science exposition with tact, being delivered through characters internalizing a problem rather than the writer/director outright spoon-feeding the audience.
Divided between three settings – Watney on Mars, the Ares III crew led by Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain), and the situation on Earth being handled by NASA – The Martian insists on its science fiction-survival/tragedy premise, with Goddard and Scott keeping the bureaucracies on Earth at bay just enough for the film to not be bogged down by the flatly written damage control by NASA chief Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels), which then quickly – thankfully – shifts gears from Sanders’ attempts at salvaging the space agency’s public face, into a rescue attempt as engineers of all manner come together to bring Watney home.
Back on Mars, Damon continues carrying the film – despite the ensemble cast – as the prime actor that is actually fulfilling his end of the acting bargain; Donald Glover comes in second as the twitchy astrophysicist Rich Purnell. The Martian’s sequences on Mars are less about tension and more about the unbridled optimism of man in the face of adversity; something Damon translates on screen perfectly. Moments that place Watney in peril are almost constantly short-lived, as the character makes a joke or quip almost immediately after like it’s a Marvel film, dissolving the “I’m not dying here” tension with humor. But The Martian was never a story that was meant to beat the human spirit into submission; it is instead a story that celebrates the human will and condition to continuously persevere against increasingly stacked odds. In that regard, the film entertainingly achieves what it sets out to do, but sadly, nothing more.
Rating: A
Mark V.