Skip to main content

Movie Review: "The Martian"

Image via Broadsheet



Let's just get this out of the way: The Martian is one of the best movies I've seen all year. The movie, which is directed by Ridley Scott, stars Matt Damon as astronaut and botanist Mark Watney who is left behind on Mars by his crew after being assumed to be dead when debris hit and left him unconscious during a storm. Left with very limited supplies, Mark has to figure out how to communicate with NASA back on Earth while at the same time figuring out how to grow food on Mars. The supporting cast includes names such as Jessica Chastain, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, and Aksel Hennie as the members of Watney's crew. Back on Earth, we see people like Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sean Bean, and Kristen Wiig.

**WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD**

So, what is it that makes The Martian so good? Well, for starters, it looks and feels very real. The visual effects on Mars are simply spectacular to the point where you feel as if they shot this movie on location in Mars. Also, because Mark is constantly recording himself as a way to log his journey, there is a sense that this is a kind of documentary which adds to making this movie feel real. The characters are constantly throwing science words around, but they do so in a way in which even if you don't know a whole lot about science (like me) you still understand everything that is happening. There is also a real attention to the smallest of details, whether it's the way in which Mark has to ration his food or all of the different challenges it would take to build and send another spacecraft or simply sending the first ship back. The filmmakers took everything into consideration and that is just so refreshing to see.

I loved the loyalty that Mark's crew portrayed throughout the film. You could see how hard it was on them, especially on Captain Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain), and when they were presented with the opportunity to go back and rescue him, they didn't hesitate even though they would go twice as long as expected without seeing their families and would be risking their lives in the process. While this film is stacked with characters, there is no real villain. Instead, the antagonist here seems to be Mars itself since it is the thing that is constantly giving Mark more and more problems. Back on Earth, Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels) is the closest there is to a villain but he really is just a businessman trying to figure out what is the best way to approach this incredibly difficult situation. 

Without a doubt, the absolute best part of The Martian is Matt Damon as Mark Watney. Even though he's facing almost sure death, he somehow manages to look at the funny side of things and while you can see how desperate he is to get back home, he stays composed most of the time and never gives up. That is not to say that he keeps a happy attitude throughout the entire movie. There are moments that cause him to lose his cool, of course, such as when the place where he is harvesting his potatoes accidentally blow up and he is left without a way to grow more food. Much like all of the people on Earth that are cheering for Mark to make it home, you also find yourself hoping that it works out for him, which makes it even harder to see when things go wrong for him. You learn to care for his character and you get so invested into his well-being, which goes back to just how real it all feels. Near the end of the film, when Mark launches into space to finally rendezvous with his friends and he finally breaks into tears, letting out all of his frustration and despair, it gets to you and gives such a sense of extreme happiness because you've seen all of the physical and emotional damage that he has endured for months.

There isn't a whole lot to not like here. As is the case with a lot of movies, some of the supporting cast was underused and underdeveloped. Beck and Johanssen (Sebastian Stan and Kate Mara, respectively), for example, somehow end up falling in love and having a baby at the end of the film without any prior indication that they were a thing. I also feel like they could have cut the film down a little more to not have it be as long as it actually is. Those are very minuscule things, though. The Martian is absolutely fantastic and deserves to be seen on the big screen. It is a 9.5/10 for me.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

7 Movies That Define Who I Am as a Film Fan

Movies have been a part of my life for as long as I remember. As I have gotten older, I have realized that I love cinema and I wish to be involved with it in any way possible. I see cinema as a way to escape reality and be in a world outside of our own. I love analyzing film and trying to figure what any particular shot in a movie meant or what it was supposed to show. Movies have a way of affecting certain people in certain ways and that's what this list is about. The following list is NOT what I consider to be the greatest films of all time. They are simply the films that have impacted my life significantly. This list might contain minor spoilers/plot points but I will do my best to keep that to a minimum. I hope you guys enjoy this list and I encourage you to watch any of the films on here that you may not have already seen before. This list is not in any particular order. 1.  Hercules  (1997) Disney's Hercules  is one of those movies that I wish people would ...
Post a Comment
Read more

First Official Trailer for "Suicide Squad"

Image via VanityFair.com The first official trailer for DC's Suicide Squad  has dropped and it is hard not to love it. It does a fantastic job of setting the tone of the movie and introducing the characters without revealing much about them other than their looks. At the same time, there is a wonderful version of the song "I Started A Joke" playing in the background and it enhances this trailer in so many ways and helps build the eventual Joker reveal. When the list of characters that would be appearing first came out, two names stood out to most fans: The Joker and Harley Quinn. And then the casting for said characters were announced and people began paying even closer attention to the project. But then, images of the cast began emerging and while people were absolutely loving Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm for Jared Leto's look as The Joker. The way this trailer was put together almost seems as though it was made for the s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Film Review: "Ready Player One"

There aren’t very many directors who have had quite the career that Steven Spielberg has. The man who directed the very first blockbuster in  Jaws , is the same man who has put together some of our most beloved films such as the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial , Jurassic Park , Close Encounters of the Third Kind , and the Indiana Jones series. It’s the same man that, aside from giving us these wonderfully imaginative films, has also given us hard-hitting dramas such as Schindler’s List , Lincoln and Bridge of Spies . His career has spanned 50 years, and the 71-year-old director shows no signs of slowing down. With his latest film, Ready Player One , Spielberg once again delivers an awe-inspiring film that captures the wonders of the imagination. It stars Tye Sheridan as Wade Watts/Parzival, Olivia Cooke as Samantha Cook/Art3mis, Ben Mendelsohn as the villainous Sorrento and Mark Rylance as OASIS creator James Halliday. The film takes place in 2045 Columbus, Ohio. In this futuristi...
Post a Comment
Read more