Monday, October 5, 2015

Review of THE MARTIAN: Scintillating Science

October 4, 2015




Mark Watney is an astronaut member of NASA's Ares III mission to Mars. After a freak accident in a Martian storm, Mark gets knocked out cold and was left behind as dead in the emergency evacuation of his crew off the planet. As it turned out, Mark was still alive. Left to survive on his own resourcefulness, skills and expertise in Botany, Mark had to keep himself alive while waiting for NASA back home to make contact with him and perhaps send a mission to rescue him off Mars.

The story is just like any shipwrecked story where a man is left alone on a deserted island. In this film though, the perils and the problems are upped hundredfold because the island on which this man is marooned is another planet altogether. Mars is nearly a hundred kilometers away from Earth, with no water nor vegetation that could sustain life. In his own words, Mark Watney had to 'Science" his way out of this big predicament.

He needed to create water and fertile soil for his sustenance. He needed to figure out an efficient way of travelling to the target point of the future Mars mission given the limited battery life of his roving vehicle. He needed to figure out a way to communicate with Earth to coordinate any possibility of rescue. Mark Watley was a McGyver of space survival.

Being the only man on Mars, Matt Damon was practically a one-man show here. He was responsible for keeping audiences engaged what could have been a boring 2-1/2 hour film of solitude. As his character Mark was keeping his spirits up by his humorous video log entries, he was keeping us entertained as well with his never-say-die optimism. His positivity draws us to root for him to get out of this alive and well. If that physical transformation of his was not a special effect, it was also a haunting proof of Damon's dedication to this project.

However, unlike "Gravity" where Sandra Bullock was alone for practically the whole film, "The Martian" also tells us about the NASA staff (played by Jeff Bridges, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kristen Wiig, Sean Bean) and their efforts to rescue Mark once they realized he was still alive. We will also see Mark's teammates on the Hermes (played by Jessica Chastain, Michael Pena, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan) who grapple with their consciences about leaving Mark behind on Mars and be impressed with the critical decisions they make. 

Humor also came from the kind of anachronistic yet undeniably infectious musical soundtrack. These were mainly disco songs from the 1970s, supposedly the favorite music of mission commander Melissa Lewis (Chastain), like "Turn the Beat Around," "Don't Leave Me This Way," "Hot Stuff" and "Waterloo". Just wait for when the cast credits roll up at the end, another surprising but appropriate disco hit will play which may have you singing along.

The scientific principles may not be fully understandable to laymen or even be completely accurate for scientists, but they all seemed logical, and that is what's essential in good science fiction. Various jargon in rocket science and astrodynamics were used, which may literally fly above our heads, but these did not really hamper enjoyment of the film. No matter how complicated the science involved in the situations we see onscreen, writer Drew Goddard (adapting from the 2011 novel of Andrew Weir) and veteran director Ridley Scott made the proceedings very engaging and easy to follow. 

After "Gravity" and "Interstellar," I think I may have another science fiction film on top of my year-end list again this year. 10/10.


18 comments:

  1. Wow 10/10? My husband was just telling my about this movie. The guy who wrote this book was an IT guy and apparently every technical thing was just googled by him and he wrote it on his spare time. But according to NASA, everything is pretty accurate. Smart guy, right?

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  2. I only heard good things about this movie - and it sure does look like a movie to see. I hear people say that Gravity, Interstellar and the Martian are must sees!

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  3. I rate that movie as 10/10 too! After watching the movie, I craved for mashed potato. LOL. I know that this movie is just a fiction but I kept on thinking, what if we could also do that on Mars?

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  4. You gave it a perfect 10! I haven't watched a Matt Damon film for years after the Bourne series he did, now I'm definitely seeing The Martian with the hubby who is also a huge fan! :)

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  5. I really liked this kind of film similar to "Castaway," a fiction story that's created by genius people. Likewise, you rated 10/10, so it's a must for me watch this film.

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  6. It's been in Cinemas for quite some time now but I haven't had the chance to watch it yet. I've been hearing a lot of good reviews and some pretty "okay" ones.

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  7. Omg i didn't expect a 10/10 rating from you. Although our company doctor insisted that we watch this because it was really good. Realize just now how good this movie was. Will definitely find time to watch this in the weekends :)

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  8. Waaaah, since the time I've seen the trailer of this movie, I was excited to watch this. This confirms that this is such a great movie! I so want to watch this one ASAP!

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  9. I've been looking for a good movie to watch, thank you for reviewing this one. My colleagues went on the a movie date two days ago and watched this film too.

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  10. I did see the trailer of this movie when I watched Heneral Luna and I noted to watch it. I went to a mall near me to check since i saw online that it was showing however, it was easily pulled off to replace it with some Pinoy movie. Pfft. I hope to find a cinema still showing this. Even by the trailer, you can tell that its worth watching.

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  11. I just watched this last night. I loved it a lot. It was long and all that but it was interesting to have seen.

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  12. Really 10/10 is that superb movie it is! It seems pretty interesting specially my son will love to watch it.

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  13. It looks like a shipwreck movie on an intergalactic scale. It would really be nice to see how they explore the planet Mars.

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  14. I actually want to watch this movie so much. Thanks for the review~

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  15. Yeap, I just caught it and agree. I think it's better than Gravity... haha... But I'm giving it 9/10 for some minor goofs.

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  16. I'm planning to watch this film but was kinda hesitant. Good thing I read this review.

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  17. I did watch this and I loved it ! Matt Damon is pretty good at it too

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  18. If this really happens in real life which for sure for austronauts are possible...its really scary!!!

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