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Matt Damon is perfectly cast as The Martian
A-No, we haven’t actually sent astronauts to Mars already. However, Ridley Scott‘s The Martian is so skillfully made and feels so realistic that audiences leaving the theater can be forgiven for thinking that manned Martian landings have occurred but that they somehow missed hearing the details.
The Martian is the story of a NASA scientific mission to Mars that not only has occurred but has gone spectacularly wrong. A freak storm damages the landing craft and apparently causes the death of astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon), so the mission commander (Jessica Chastain) ends the mission weeks early and leaves with the remaining astronauts. Watney, however, is not dead, and when he successfully communicates that fact back to Earth, NASA director Teddy Sears (Jeff Daniels) eventually accedes to public pressure and tries to mount a rescue mission, even though it will take at least two years before a rescue craft can actually reach Mars.
Although The Martian obviously is fictional, it plays like a 21st century version of Apollo 13. In both movies, the emphasis is on the engineering, finding a solution to one problem after another, both on Earth and for Mark Watney on Mars. Mark conveniently makes a series of videos that provide the necessary exposition in an entertaining manner, explaining how he has grown vegetables and manufactured water, among other things. Meanwhile on Earth, every decision is reduced to a matter of time, how many extra days a particular action stands to gain or cost. Director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Drew Goddard constantly shift the focus back and forth between the amiable Watney (a perfect role for Matt Damon) and the brainstorming and decision making on Earth. To its credit, the film avoids making Daniels a stock corporate heavy, but instead, shrewdly pits him against the more humanitarian, cost-be-damned chief astronaut Mitch Henderson (Sean Bean). While Scott keeps the scenes on Earth deceptively low-key and often quite humorous, while remaining surprisingly realistic, the scenes on Mars seem equally real, thanks to some great photography by Dariusz Wolski. This is easily Scott’s best work since Black Hawk Down. Despite its vast scope and other world setting, The Martian avoids grand statements and issues. Instead, it’s an exceptional example of the craft of filmmaking, successfully engaging the audience in a straightforward, albeit highly complex rescue mission that results in one of the best films of the year.
Continue reading on The Martian: Mini-review
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