The Martian is a suspenseful, properly paced, intelligent, and well put together film that I think most everyone will enjoy. It's 2015, and we finally have the Mars/Space movie we deserve and with a proper space sideshow to boot.
[Warning Contains some Spoilers]
Despite the dire nature of the character's situation, and the drastic measures he must take to overcome them, this is at its core a light-hearted movie. The comic relief is not something I generally prefer, but it was welcome enough in this flick. Honestly? I almost added comedy to the sub-genre. Personally, I prefer sobering tones, like Apollo-13.
The action was pretty impressive as well, though generally not center stage, like Gravity. Contrasting Mission to Mars, this movie was at least scientific about it's bullshit. I'm a bit too much of a sci-fi nerd to buy into the pseudo-science hocus-pocus, but was impressed nonetheless with the creative premises involved. I'm glad to see Ridley Scott picking up a book script like this, as his last few films have been seriously flawed.
Though the vast and beautiful landscapes of "Mars" and space are something to behold, the scope and context of this movie is rather limited. However, this can be overlooked as the cracks were filled and the surface properly glossed over by the various (though limited) side stories. By splicing in establishing shots from around the world, jumping between many different characters (most of them irrelevant), and giving a vague premise for some external drama the main plot sticks together just fine. In fact, I think the distractions help it along as a good side-plot should.
Kate Mara (the journalist from House Of Cards), Donald Glover (Childish Gambino hahaha) McKenzie Davis (Stop and Catch Fire) and a whole handful of other under rated actors really made this enjoyable for me.
If I had to pick a complaint, though I won't dwell on the negative, it would be the dryness of the characters. They were all extremely archetypal, teetering on cliche/trite. But, to their credit, they were fun and generally nothing more than what can be expected in PG-13 movie. Despite the progressively-edgy fuck word Matt Daemon got to use a few times, this really wasn't a great study of character as much as it was an adventure story. Put blunt, this was Story > Character in almost every capacity, but not to a point of disaster. I think for the better, this film chose not to delve into the darkness and despair the way Cast Away did. We didn't need to see what motivated the character. It was strictly survival.
Overall, the conflict in this movie is enough to build a sense of suspense. It was extremely well edited and the directing style utilized many creative shots to vividly paint the picture of both space, and the gargantuan Mars.
Comparison to other similar movies:
Apollo-13: Similar sequences, I'm certain they used many shots as reference, but far less bleak and less sobering.
Mission to Mars: First, fuck that movie. This movie blows it away and doesn't toy with the audience. However, to that movie's credit it did have a very suspenseful scene that sticks out. This movie almost shot by shot re-did the space tether sequence.
Sunshine: Though I'm sure they again took many sequences for inspiration, the crew in this film is nothing more than a distraction. Honestly, they were totally non-characters. Sunshine, they were all unique and interesting. Blah blah the ending sucked blah.
Cast Away: Far less dark and character driven and more based on what is going on back home. It doesn't humanize Matt Daemon. He is ostensibly a super hero.
Red Planet: We don't talk about that.
Gravity: Honestly? Less beautiful, but a better overall movie I thought. Gravity was good for it's own reasons, and this is good for others.
Prometheus: Yeah....So Prometheus sucked. Don't get me wrong, it was gorgeous, even shot was almost flawless, but...what the hell was with it? Seriously, I don't get that movie. This movie followed a cogent order of things and didn't have space zombies for no reason. So there's that...
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