I saw an early screening of Ridley Scott's "The Martian" last night courtesy of the New York Times Film Club and absolutely loved it. This is the best movie I've seen in a while. I recently read the book it's based on (the genesis and publication of which is a story in itself) and loved that too. It was one of the few books I've read where I was disappointed it ended.
The movie sticks close to the book sans a few obstacles, no doubt to keep the running time manageable (it clocks in at 2:21). It stars Matt Damon who's on screen alone for much of the movie (he documents his activities via a video log so we hear him describe the things he’s attempting and the causes of his mishaps), but it never gets old because of the charisma of his character.
The story is, Damon is part of a Mars team living on the surface collecting rock and soil samples to bring back to earth. There's a sort of mother ship orbiting the red planet and when the mission is over, the crew will depart in a rocket called the MAV and rendezvous with the Hermes for their return trip. When a fierce storm arises, they're forced to end the mission early. As they make their way to the MAV, Damon is impaled by an antenna flying away in the storm and presumed dead. The crew leaves him behind.
Of course, Damon is still alive. His bio-sensors were broken so it looked to the crew monitoring him like he died. The antenna which pierced his suit and impaled him created a hole through which his oxygen escaped, but his blood loss sealed the hole and protected him. He wakes up alone on Mars.
What follows is a classic survival and find-your-way-home story, and it's riveting. With each crisis, we watch Damon solve problems through science and engineering (“I'm gonna’ have to science the shit out of this”). When he realizes he'll run out of food, he finds a way to generate water and grow potatoes (from potatoes in the crew’s food supplies) in one of the small habitations. His use of fertilizer is funny, ingenious, and it would really work. He's without communication with Earth for the beginning of the movie (remember the broken antenna?), then solves that problem in a brilliant way and regains contact. What's great about this movie is the action is believable. By avoiding pseudo-science, the movie emphasizes the real human struggle and ingenuity of the character.
We follow Damon through successes and failures as he struggles to stay alive long enough for a future mission to pick him up. It's in 3D and is one of the best uses of the technology I've seen, it’s subtle and effective. The vistas of Mars are wonderful to look at, and the 3D enhances the action without ever getting in the way of it. It was also easy to adjust to and follow. Often 3D is distracting and hard to focus on. Not here. If you see this one (and you should), try for a 3D screening.
There are mild flaws in the movie – more of the book’s obstacles would have been effective, and at times you doubt real astronauts would do some of the things they do here (crawling along the outside of a ship in space un-tethered) – but these truly are minor quibbles in a fantastic film.
Melanie wasn't able to go with me to this one, but I'll happily see it again just so I can take her to it.
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