The Martian

This has already been joked about on the net but "The Martian" almost seemed like a prequel to "Interstellar". In fact, director Ridley Scott did check with Christopher Nolan just in case there were other similarities that he should be aware of. If I could change one thing about the marketing of "The Martian", it would be the tone of the trailers. They gave us the impression that this movie was going to be a thrilling, realistic rescue story but the film itself is more optimistic than you might think. That isn't to say that the movie was bad but rather, we were delivered something different from what we were promised. My feeling concerning "The Martian" is that it will entertain and is worth seeing but on discount night. All the cinematic elements were good but not great. This review will contain a few spoilers and a lot of comparisons to "Cast Away".

Going into this movie, I had been preparing in my mind to blog afterwards about science fiction versus science accuracy. "Gravity" is a good example of a film that you can't call sci-fi because of its level of realism and I thought that "The Martian" was going to have a similar level of realism. To me, science fiction must be something either impossible or far-fetched enough that you have to suspend disbelief. Going to Mars is a reality these days but "The Martian" requires you to suspend disbelief in a few scenes. While the scientific accuracy of the movie is high, its mood wasn't all that pragmatic. A story like "Cast Away" is also conceivably possible but that film felt quite realistic. The filmmakers on "The Martian" could have strove for more realism in my opinion. Had the film used a more realistic tone, I think it would have been better. The use of music played a part in this tone. The disco was fun and I enjoy the choice for the song used for the end credits even though I don't like the song all that much. The amount of disco used added to the lighthearted tone and the trailers should have used similar music so as to properly advertise the film. Besides the mood that the film exuded, the story structure towards the start of the movie was off because I do not like how the inciting incident happens so fast. In "Cast Away", time is taken to introduce the characters and relationships. For "The Martian", it's only a few minutes in and Watney is alone on the planet. Now for a spoiler alert. The ending of the movie can be likened unto a carpool picking up someone on the side of the road without stopping. The Iron Man idea/maneuver was pretty cool but this is where we really must suspend our disbelief because I don't think that Watney could have survived it. Surviving the launch off of Mars was believable but not using air from his own suit as propulsion. "The Martian" was filmed in 3D but there were still some problems with the illusion and I can't tell whether it was camera problems or faults with the 3D conversion of CGI shots. Now that I have voiced my criticisms, I will say that the movie was still worth seeing. I have one question concerning the Project Elrond plot point: Is this a joke from the casting director or screenwriter. It is too much of a coincidence for Sean Bean to be in this scene and forget that he was in "The Lord of the Rings" so did they write this humorous reference after the casting of the character of Mitch or was it in the script originally and they cast Sean Bean to make a joke. Either way, that got the biggest laugh from me. After hearing what Project Elrond was, I was hoping Mitch would say, "It is a gift." I also enjoyed the moment after Watney is told that his texts are being broadcasting all over the world. NASA worked more with the production of this movie than they did on most other shows. As mentioned, the level of scientific accuracy was impressive but the tone that the filmmakers chose didn't fully honor this accuracy.

As with the whole movie, the acting in 'The Martian" was good but not great. You can tell by the editing that Matt Damon did not actually lose that much weight for this role but Tom Hanks did for his role as Chuck. I did like Damon's work however as well as the performances from Michael Pena and Oscar-nominated actor Chiwetel Ejiofor. Early in his career, director Ridley Scott had some big hits in the science fiction genre. In the case of "Alien", there are some lighting and color similarities between the scenes on the Nostromo and those on the Hermes. "The Martian" by the way was filmed in Wadi Run, Jordan, which has been used in previous movies set on Mars. An analogy for how the marketing was responsible for disturbing my enjoyment of "The Martian" follows. You see a commercial for a new burger at a well-known restaurant. The commercial says that the burger is a burst of favor so you are expecting something strong but instead, the burger meat has a hint of fruit. I am disappointed when movie trailers provide false advertizing. The movie is more lighthearted than I was expecting to the point that you didn't really worry about Watney. Evidence of my point came with the announcement of the Golden Globe nominations. "The Martian" was part of the comedy catagories. The film by the way won Best Motion Picture Comedy and Damon won for Best Actor in a Comedy. As for the Oscars, the list of nominations is impressive: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Production Design. There were obviously plenty of people who liked this movie despite the mixed signals. I enjoyed it.

3.5 Stars