Review of The Martian (2015) by Allen G — 23 Apr 2016

It's everything you'd expect from a Hollywood Blockbuster and that's great but it doesn't really have an edge. The premise is enough to keep it engaging but as all of the boxes are ticked as the movie progresses, I found myelf wishing it had been just a little more interesting.

It's a good space movie and thanks to some laughs, as well as its wacky but not TOO wacky premise, 'The Martian' manages to be more than just another generic entry into the genre. With that being said, however, there are no surprises with this one- we all know what's going to happen and so it's really a case of a dull film being made into a solid one.

I would have loved to see 'The Martian' embrace its scientific elements more and really play about with the day to day realities of trying to survive on Mars. Instead, the science covered certainly helped the film but it felt a bit surface level. if this was a time travel movie, it'd be closer to Back to the Future than to Primer. There's certainly nothing wrong with that but I'd just love a space film to really drive home the point that space is hard, like really hard, and I don't think that's happened yet. Instead, the big hitters tend to get caught up in the human aspect and the isolation of space. I love that too but, let's be honest, 'The Martian' isn't going to beat Movies like 'Gravity' at that game.

When all is said and done then, 'The Martian' is a solid addition to Ridley Scott's repertoire but it's not groundbreaking and it will never become iconic- it's no 'Alien' or 'Blade Runner', that's for sure.