The Martian

Director Ridley Scott has dealt with a series of hit and miss movies over the past few years.  In the last two years he directed critical and box office misses The Counsellor (2013), and Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014).  Both films were poorly reviewed, getting 35% and 27% on Rotten Tomatoes respectively.  I cannot comment on The Counsellor, but I did see Exodus in theatres, and, believe me on this, it was a rather lifeless experience.  The present had been indicating a long and disappointing slide from the skills he showed earlier in his career.

One of the reasons why I love movies so much is that each film is a new opportunity for a talent to show that she or he still has it.  When I sat down to watch The Martian, the first ten minutes had completely convinced me that Scott had returned to pristine story telling and environment crafting form.

If one looks likes to draw comparisons that a film has with its source material, The Martian is a textbook example of it being done right.  What made Andy Weir's novel such an enjoyable and captivating read was the humanizing of the dry-humoured protagonist, Mark Watney (played in the movie by Matt Damon).  The poor lad was stranded on Mars after his team had to evacuate during a horrific storm, and we followed him through sadness, hope, excitement, and depression.  These emotions were mirrored by what the good folks back on earth were journeying through as they followed the story of Watney on Mars.  It was solid, popcorn munching literature that walked us through the spectrum of the human experience.

The film, which was incredibly penned by Drew Goddard (Cabin in the Woods, Cloverfield) was able to capture all of the beats and flow of the book, executing the humour and isolation of Watney with artistic perfection.  This is exalted by a tremendous cast of characters who all exceeded in nailing their performances.  Each character is written as a unique individual, and are all believable in their motives and actions, something that not every movie can boast.

Normally I balk at movies in 3D, but this is a key aspect in the story telling, much as it was in 2013's Gravity (hey, both movies were about shit hitting the fan in space!).  The depth that is created through this medium shows us just how small and insignificant Watney is when compared to the dangers offered up by the red planet.

Speaking of the red planet, this is somewhere we have been before in numerous movies.  I distinctly remember watching Total Recall with my father and being in awe of Schwarzenegger standing on the crest of a hill on Mars before having a fatal fall.  I had been to many different planets through Star Wars and other sic-fi tales, but Mars stuck out to me.  Probably because it was unimaginative.  It was bleak and dead.  That resonated with me about the reality of what the planet could actually be like, and left me never wanting to visit such a lonely and desolate place.

Well, if I thought it looked cool back then, it looks even more amazing now.  The visuals and construction of what we see of Mars by Ridley Scott absolutely look and feel real, with no hint of computer generated imaging at all.  It falls in line with the gauntlet for world building that Joseph Kosinski laid down when he directed Oblivion (not a great movie, but insane and seamless visuals).  It's one thing for a movie to have neat-o special effects, but it is another to create an environment that actually feels like the movie was shot on location.  The eyes are unable to detect inconsistencies, and the subconscious mind has nothing to grab onto to say this isn't a genuine place.  Scott also seems to shove a boot into the backside of the modern movie making system as this insanely special effect-heavy film brought with it a budget of just over one hundred million dollars.  When films with a reasonable budget look so perfect, there are fewer and fewer excuses for the exorbitant budgeted films.

Was this film created to be the greatest movie ever made?  Hell no.  Was it created to contend for one of the best popcorn munchers of all time?  Hell yes.  Movies don't need to be deep in thematic battles while being backed by Oscar baiting performances.  They need to tell a story that grips the audience and invites them into the experience.  That's all a film needs to do to be successful, and that is exactly what happens with The Martian.  In the theatres laughter will be heard, tears may be shed, and people will leave the screening smiling and talking about what they saw.  That, to me, is what the theatre experience is all about.

Rating - 3.5 out of 4 stars