As with all Ridley Scott movies there was a lot of hype and anticipation ahead of the release of his latest outer space adventure, The MartianĀ (2015). He’s got a really good eye for what to include in the trailer for his films and that was the case here and though it’s nowhere near as much of a let down as PrometheusĀ was it doesn’t quite live up to the expectations that were built up from watching the trailer and reading the synopsis.
Looking at the positives there are some really funny moments in the story with good comic timing, funny one liners and classic Mars ‘bants’. In general this works really well, but it goes a little too far on the whole with comparisons to the comedy of Guardians Of The Galaxy, which doesn’t quite suit the nature of what should be a tense situation. It means that it’s no Apollo 13Ā when it comes to serious, edge-of-your seat rescue movie action, so some of the nerve jangling scenes lose a little of their impact as a result.
Unlike a lot of Ridley Scott’s previous space movies, The MartianĀ is more science than science fiction and it makes for interesting viewing for any science geeks out there like us. Like Interstellar it pushes at the boundaries of the possible and while it doesn’t go as far as it in terms of theoretical science, it does give you a glimpse at some of the more advanced tech behind the future of space travel.
It takes place on Mars as a group of exploring NASA astronauts are forced to evacuate the planet when a freak storm hits. Things go sideways when one of the crew members, Mark Watney (Matt Damon), gets cut off from the rest and left behind, presumed dead, on the red planet with barely enough supplies to last a few months, let along the four years to the manned trip to Mars.
It makes for a genius premise that taps into the Mars exploration spirit of the century with a one-way manned mission to the fourth rock from the sun planned in real life for 2024. For the most part this is backed up by some pretty convincing props, set designs and costumes, but it’s occasionally let down by some of the CGI, which can look a bit clumsy in movement in zero gravity or in the propulsion of rockets jetting off. That’s not to say that it’s all bad though, the shots of the Hermes spacecraft look pretty cool as it skims through space, but there are too many CGI tells along the way for it to be entirely credible.
Things can also get a little slow at times and with 2 hours and 21 minutes to make it through, you definitely start to feel at least a little strain before it works up to its crescendo. The good news is that these periods don’t get too much time to fester before a new development kicks in, but there’s at least ten or twenty minutes of fat that could have been stripped out by director, Ridley Scott, and his editor,
One of the biggest credits the film has is Matt Damon (Interstellar), who plays the stranded astronaut botanist with a lot of skill, humanity and humour. He’s got more than a few tough scenes to deal with and he pulls them off very well, coming across as real life as is possible in a story about a dude that gets left on the planet Mars. There is a little similarity between the character of Mark Watney and Dr. Mann fromĀ Interstellar, but if anything he pulls them both off very well.
Chiwetel Ejiofor (Marching Powder film), Jessica Chastain (Lawless) and relative newcomer Mackenzie Davis add to Damon’s performance, helping to ground the film in reality. However, the rest of the cast feels a little muddled with Sean Bean (Pixels) seeming more like he was on another planet, Kristen Wiig (Zoolander 2) a bad fit for the film, Jeff Daniels channeling a little too much Harry Dunne and cardboard responses from both Kate Mara (Fantastic Four (2015)) and Sebastian Stan (Captain America: Civil War).
That aside, The Martian is far from being a bad film and with some impressive visuals it’s one that should be seen on the big screen to experience it at its best. Just don’t go with overly inflated expectations and you shouldn’t be too disappointed, although you will need to outlay around 2.5 hours to it, so you might want to take little pillow for a midway snooze. If you missed it at the cinema, it’ll be making its way to DVD, Blu-ray and digital download in the UK on the 8th February 2016.
The Martian review: 3.4/5
