The Martian (2015) Review

Review by Brandon Fu
Directed by Ridley Scott
Rated: PG-13 for some strong language, injury images, and brief nudity

The Martian(Scott, 2015), is this year's Interstellar, with fantastic visuals and a return to form from a slipping Ridley Scott. Since his last movie, Exodus: Gods and Kings(Scott, 2014), Scott has improved practically everything about this movie. Unlike Interstellar, The Martian is actually funny, and serious at the same time. One of the best movies of the year so far.

The Martian tells the story of Mark Watney(Matt Damon), a stranded astronaut on Mars who has to communicate with NASA and face some personal problems in order to triumph and return to Earth. After his crew leaves Mars after a huge sandstorm and Watney is presumed dead, he uses his knowledge as a scientist in order to survive until rescue comes after him.

There is both a Mars part of the movie, with Mark Watney as the focus, and there is also an earth part, with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jeff Daniels and their interactions with NASA and JPL in order to get him back. I would have wanted less of the earth scenes, as it would have made Mark Watney's story more impressive, and much more interesting to watch.

Something that is quite obvious about this movie is that the cast is absolutely awesome. With people like Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kate Mara, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, etc., it is obvious that a movie with this caliber of stars would be incredible, and it is. Matt Damon is plays the part of a stranded person to the tee. A lot of the scenes that could have been extremely serious are brightened with the humor of the movie. However, this relaxed nature of Mark Watney means that there are almost no scenes in which we see him break down and actually realize his loneliness. There are scenes like that, however, it should have had more of an emotional triumph instead of a physical one.

Unlike most of the cast, there is one person who is a sore thumb that sticks out: Donald Glover(AKA Childish Gambino). Due to his lack of acting experience, I can't buy him as a JPL nerd who spends all day writing code and solving equations. If there were scenes that show his prowess as a mathematician, then I would have bought it. Instead, we are just given Donald Glover a weird introduction and a scene in which he explains his thoughts through models of spaceships. It is not that big of a deal, but purely basing off of his previous performances and hip hop background.

Another aspect of the movie that I really enjoyed was the science aspect, and how everything was able to be explained to the audience. It made sense, and it was fun to see Watney solve his problems through science.

Visually, this movie is stunning. It gives a huge amount of scale, and you really do feel as if you are alone on a planet. When most people think of Mars, they think of huge, vast, red land with no physical interest. However, this movie has a lot of jagged mountains, with huge hills and dunes. Though not as visually impressive as Interstellar, still impressive none the less.

To put it quite simply, The Martian is a great movie and return to form for Ridley Scott. It's funny, moving, realistic, and fun to watch. Though without its mishaps, this film is definitely worth watching.

8/10