Two years ago in October, “Gravity” hit theaters, and Sandra Bullock’s plight for survival made people fear space. Last year in November, “Interstellar” blended complex scientific theories with blockbuster action. In keeping with the annual fall-release sci-fi theme, “The Martian” by Ridley Scott came out the first week of October, and it takes the the best aspects of the other two films and combines them into a phenomenal experience that must be seen in theaters.
“The Martian” starts with a crew of astronauts collecting soil samples on a visit to Mars. A storm suddenly hits, and all but one member of the crew make it off the planet before the weather strikes, leaving much of their supplies behind. That one remaining member is Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon, and he’s left to survive on the planet until he can make connection with NASA. The best scientists back on Earth work in conjunction with Watney and his crew to save him before his food and water run out, culminating into one last mission so crazy that it just might work.
Similar to “Interstellar,” “The Martian” takes the approach of science-fiction where the science is 90 percent of the film and fiction is 10 percent. Given the technology available at the time of the film, everything Watney does to survive makes sense and adds to the believability of the situation — there won’t be any aliens encountered or fire extinguisher space flight in this film.
One of the most amazing aspects of the film is how real Mars feels. The red sands and desolate mountain ranges plus the untouched dust fields make it seem like Matt Damon is actually on Mars, which is an impressive feat in of itself given how much of a movie star Damon is. I don’t know what movie magic Scott used to portray the illusion of Mars so effectively, but it was glorious to watch.
Damon also gives the performance of a lifetime, since a good half of the movie lies solely on his shoulders. His pain seems real, his effort seems real and his good humor in his situation seems real. As his time on Mars keeps getting extended, Damon loses significant weight and his teeth decay to the point where I didn’t see him as movie star Matt Damon, I saw him as a man stuck on Mars trying to stay alive. Damon hits the perfect balance of genius scientist who knows exactly what to do to survive and everyman who complains about the music choice left for him by his crew. Surprisingly, Damon’s wit makes the film much more humorous than I expected, and it helped keep the tone less dire than previous survival films while simultaneously making it impossible not to root for him to get back home. I found myself laughing more that Watney had enough optimism to crack jokes than at the jokes themselves, and it is rare to feel such a connection to a character.
The supporting cast was surprisingly packed with well-known actors, and their performances ranged from excellent to distracting. Chiwetal Ejiofor from “12 Years a Slave” and Jeff Daniels from “The Newsroom” put up stellar performances as the decision-makers back at NASA, but Kristen Wiig and Donald Glover didn’t sell me on their respective roles as NASA assistant and astrodynamicist expert. Sean Bean from “The Lord of the Rings” and Michael Peña from “Ant-Man” performed in the middle, getting the job done, but there are so many characters on Earth to share screen time that they don’t get the chance to shine. While the science going on back at NASA is interesting and important to the story, the best parts of the film come from Damon stranded on Mars, and I found myself wishing it would show more of him whenever we cut back to NASA headquarters.
Overall, “The Martian” gives audiences everything they need: a likeable protagonist, dazzling special effects and expert directing by a man who knows what he’s doing. I can’t recommend it enough.
_MOVE gives “The Martian” five out of five stars._
