Review of The Martian (2015) by Ariadnep — 13 Dec 2015

Andy Weir's novel this film is based on is the closest you will ever get to a peer-reviews and NASA-vetted adventure story about survival on Mars. There is only one genuine scientific error in the story, and it was committed knowingly and deliberately as a plot device to strand astronaut Mark Watney: the atmospheric pressure on Mars is so low that the fiercest sandstorms could barely flutter a flag, let alone do the damage portrayed in the opening sequence. The only other quibbles involve things that we know more about today (thanks to NASA orbiters and rovers) than we did when Weir started writing: Mars does have tiny amount of liquid water at places on its surface, but it's hypersaline and undoubtedly full of toxic perchlorates; the dirt Watney wallows in would probably also have enough perchlorate in it to poison him; putting your intestinal bacteria into Martian soil, on Mars, is a major no-no according to international treaties about planetary protection: we still don't know whether Mars has any bacteria of its own, and we don't want to confuse the issue by contaminating the place with E. coli. Also, although the terrain at the novel's landing site looks smooth in maps made from orbit, in high-res view it turns out to be covered with huge potholes that would make driving vehicles difficult. And finally, the orbital maneuvers at the end of the novel, involving releasing air and flying "like Iron Man" are more comic book than physics book. But those are "errors" only uber-nerds would cite. The novel is as hard as science fiction ever gets. The most improbable idea in it is that the US Congress would ever fund NASA enough to do these things, but NASA probably could do them were it given the funds.

The movie stays about as close as it can to the novel, given that some of the explanations need to be simplified and some of Watney's language and humor expurgated for American audiences. So if you like rock-hard sci fi about survival on the real Mars -- with no aliens or monsters, but lots of "I'm going to science the hell out of this", you will love this movie.