Film Review - The Martian

Castaway 2: Left in Space. At least that much is given away in the trailer, and the book is famous enough that it is really hard to avoid knowing big chunks of the story going in. There are still some good surprises though.

The film is packed with famous faces, many of them making token appearances rather than actively contributing. They do make appearances though. This is somewhat helpful as it means we aren't treated to a straight Castaway rip-off with an hour or so of Matt Damon trying to do a Tom Hanks impression but are instead given a rounder story with some development of the other characters.

This does manage to distract a little from the main character. We see each of his exciting adventures and his solutions to each of the problems he is presented, but we don't actually see any development of his mental state. Several months of being completely stranded and then a year or so with no human contact, including 7 months living out of the back of a truck, never seem to take any toll on his mental health. 

Ridley Scott's direction is competitive against some of his earlier work, although I caveat that as a single cinema viewing. I do wonder if the extensive CGI will hold up to repeated viewings. 

There are plenty of other good things going on though. The 70's music is very fitting and that manages to survive despite the repeated internal referencing. Some of the humour that pops up allows the viewer to laugh along, despite the ridiculous seriousness of the situation there is a lightness. 

There are some bugs. The JPL wunderkind scientist is a ridiculous stereotype who makes a seemingly inspired genius discovery which any first year mechanics student could have predicted and most second year's could have calculated. The hero astronauts taking 2 minutes to decide to go and save their friend, against the advice of a whole planet of experts  is so 'Merican that it doesn't even warrant discussion. The Chinese decision to intervene is a nonsense Deus Ex Machina which is disappointing in a film which otherwise relies on relatively good science to solve complex problems.

Overall this is one of the better Sci-fi films that has been out in a long time. 9 out of 10. 

Spoiler Alert: Sean Bean doesn't die! But they do make a very good scene out of his appearance in the film, fortunately the fact that he can barely contain his own laughter is covered well by the humorous nature of the scene.