The Martian

Review By: John Delia

Releasing this weekend and battling stiff competition The Martian moves into theaters everywhere.  The edge of your seat movie turns up the excitement early then settles down as audiences watch a stranded astronaut waste no time in finding a way to survive against insurmountable odds.  It’s Cast Away under more intimidating conditions and the tenseness of Gravity times two.  The film pushes the envelope several times with exciting situations that involve the possibility of certain death.  Excellent acting by Matt Damon and the usual high intensity of director Ridley Scott make The Martian a must for science fiction and action junkies.

It’s the third mission to Mars called Aires III and they have landed safely on the red planet.  They have set up their living quarters and been working on getting soil samples and other needed materials needed for testing.  It is a crew of six that include the following members: Rick Martinez (Michael Peña) who is the pilot of the Hermes the ship that got them to the surface of Mars, Beth Johanssen (Kate Mara) is a computer expert and in charge of communications among all other things nerd and Commander Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain). Additional members of the crew are Alex Vogel (Aksel Hennie) who is a German chemist and Chris Beck (Sebastian Stan) a flight medical officer. Also along for the trip is Mark Watney (Matt Damon), a Botanist who’s testing the soil for possible farming on Mars. 

They are in their 18 sol (Martian day) of their 31 sol planned stay on Mars and are about to complete a day’s work when a sudden unexpected sand storm of high magnitude threatens the mission.  Everyone is ordered by Lewis to get on the ship in preparation to abort the mission.  The first gale hits the crew and Watney disappears from sight.  Having to take off before the whole crew gets killed, Lewis gives the command to launch.  Watney is presumed dead and the crew starts their nine month journey back to Earth.  When it’s discovered by Mindy Park (Mackenzie Davis) that Watney is still alive, NASA has to take drastic action. 

The story moves along with Watney stranded on the barren planet with little food and water.  Director Ridley Scott sets up a desperate situation for Watney including minimal supplies, an injury to his body during the storm, temperatures ranging from 72 degrees Fahrenheit to 300 degrees below 0, no communications with Earth and they think he is dead. The suspense builder hardly ever calms as the film plays out.  Much like Cast Away, it shows the will to live under the most critical of conditions.  Taking a page from Gravity, it’s like being lost in a void not knowing if he’ll survive the ordeal, but making the most of what life he has left to live.

The acting by Matt Damon on the direction of Scott gets amazing as the film plays out.  Damon shows Watney as a man possessed with only one thought, living until the next Aires mission scheduled in over a year.  He makes his audience a believer that he’s really on the planet and every step, action and result looks real.  Not impressed with his performance in Interstellar, I thought prior to the beginning of the film that my expectations here would be more of the same. After the first ten minutes of his stranded routine, I became a believer in his role and his ability develop a credible character.

The support cast has a number of notable actors that perform well, but their screen time is so short one wonders why it’s so important to have a familiar face.  Actually, it’s a distraction rather than an integral part of the production.  Jessica Chastain takes on the role of Commander Melissa Lewis a hardened ex-Navy vet that came to the program.  She’s in the film all of twelve or so minutes and her importance to the movie, although vital, does not need a strongly familiar face.  Playing the role of pilot on the Hermes, Michael Peña got the call.  He’s on camera all of about five minutes.  His role is to get the space ship off the planet Mars before it topples over due to the huge storm and strands the astronauts. Sebastian Stan as Chris Beck, a flight medical officer, may be on screen as long as three film minutes with very little dialogue.

Then, there’s Kristin Wig who plays Annie Montrose a distraught NASA media relations director who panics when they get the news that Watney is still alive. More like a cameo appearance than anything else, she looks very unprofessional in the role of someone who is supposed to be calm and able to manipulate the media. Couple all that with hokey scenes of Times Square, the Chinese getting into the act and, well, there’s my rant.

The Martian has been rated PG-13 for some strong language, injury images and brief nudity.  If your teen is a gamer then there’s nothing to worry about with this film as nothing gets beyond the Teen rated Xbox.  You may check out the film before allowing pre-teens and especially little tykes see the movie. Make sure you see the film in 3D for best viewing.

FINAL ANALYSIS:  A very cool film for sci-fi lovers and thrill seekers.  Nerds should already have a ticket to the film. (B)