Review of The Martian (2015) by Nathandrake007 — 06 Oct 2015

Did you know that the average lifespan of a human in hours, say to 75 Years old, is 657,000 hours. But you then have to compensate and calculate the leap years also to which would be 18.75 Leap Years in a 75 year span. To which the total then equals to 657,450 Hours.

Take into account all the maths I just spoke about and you got an idea of how this movie works on every detail. It truly is the very best parts of MacGyver’s and Burn Notice’s gadget moments rolled into a movie.

To have just under 3 measly hours take over your life and engross you the entire time does not seem such a feat when compared to those 75 years. But it is. I do not think I blinked much during the course of its 2hrs and 40 minute Runtime.

During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meagre supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.

I cannot even fathom touching the surface of how almost flawless this film is. How everything Watney does to stay alive feels real. This all makes sense on a massive, realistic scale. This could be very possible. The science and mathematics they do in this film makes you feel so underwhelmingly minor in the scale of things. I felt extremely stupid for the most part. But it wasn't the type of stupidity I hated. I envied every single moment of it and it kind of made me want to go back and focus in science and math class more than I did. These Scientists that work for the real NASA are genius.

To think The Martian actually all came from, apparently, an equally amazing book by Peter Weir is even more incredible.

The scale of its screenplay (written by Drew Goddard of Cabin In The Woods & Daredevil Tv Series) is well above par. It is a fine form of cinema and a brilliant return to form for Ridley Scott.

I hate movies that waste great characters, funny ones, smart ones, ones that make you say 'I wish we had seen more of them in the film'. But here, every single character is used so well on a scale that works. I cannot say too much about anything in this film. It needs to be experienced before a spoiler talk. Suffice to say, you can see this film in 2D or 3D (I saw it in 2D). The second half of this film, with its outstanding ending, should be a 3D Fever dream. However there is 2 hours roughly, worth of nothing that would come close to a massive 3D experience. So do not worry too much as both options still leave you loving it either choice you make.

Harry Gregson Williams scores the music and I have to note his work here. In this movie, just as in many of my fave scores (Metal Gear Solid 3 video game and Armageddon movie), it is moving and without it, a lot of Matt Damon’s alone screen time might not have worked the same magic it did.

Matt Damon really deserves something amazing from this film. To actually invest 3 quarters of a film with nothing but one actor on screen is a hell of an accomplishment. See This Movie! It is one people will be talking about and others will aspire to be like for many years to come.