“Help is only 140 million miles away.”
For the uninitiated, there are no aliens in the movie The Martian. If you have not already guessed from the posters, with Matt Damon’s prominent space helmet mug, the movie is mostly about the survival and rescue of his character, astronaut Mark Watney, after he got stranded on Mars by a mission gone awry.
Director Ridley Scott of Alien (1979) and Prometheus (2012) fame, returns to outer space once again with this novel-adapted screenplay, together with Jessica Chastain. Chastain was only recently in another space sci-fi, Interstellar (2014), that also had Damon playing a minor role in. Chastain plays Melissa Lewis, who is the commander of the Ares 3 mission to Mars.
Although The Martian is labelled as science fiction, much of it is rooted in actual science; I believe many geeks out there, like me, would probably relish in the MacGyver solutions that Watney comes up to overcome his astronomical problems of returning to Earth alive. For example, the film uses “sol” to mark the time elapsed on Mars instead of “day”, as each solar day on Mars is slightly longer than on Earth. Other geeky nuggets thrown around include communication time between Earth and Mars, computer ASCII codes and names of actual orbital maneuvers, should be reasons enough for science aficionados to watch the film.
Besides the geek factor, the film was also thoroughly entertaining, with both the humour of Watney and the gorgeously rendered scenes of Martian landscape and outer space. I am not a fan of 3D in cinema ever since I watched Avatar (2009), which I felt added too much distraction on-screen, especially during fast action scenes. In addition, wearing the 3D glasses also made for awkward viewing for bespectacled viewers like me.
However, watching The Martian in 3D really added to the immersive experience; the 3D effects are subtly executed and complement the theme brilliantly. Whenever the scenes pan around the rocky desolate landscape, I felt as if I was flying through the Martian atmosphere. I also love how the camera overlays seem to float in mid-air whenever Watney videos himself with his cameras.
I have a confession to make — I love the novel by Andy Weir. The novel was released on Weir’s own website initially. Readers then suggested that Weir publishes Watney’s story on Amazon in order to make downloading to their Kindle devices more convenient. When that happened, the book’s stellar rise though the charts caught the attention of publishers and the movie studios, and the rest is history. I picked up the book as it topped the sci-fi category in Goodreads readers’ recommendation in 2014, and I loved the humour and scientific accuracy described in the plot.
So for fans of the novel, comparisons will be inevitable. There are a few departures from the book, fortunately, since the adapted the screenplay was written by Drew Goddard and Weir himself; the changes are quite minor and should not to detract anyone from watching the movie.
I am not sure if NASA timed the news release with the film, as it just confirmed that water has been found on Mars. It seems that the idea of manned mission to Mars may be gaining traction, and we might soon land a man on Mars in the foreseeable future. However, if that is not soon enough for you, watching The Martian in 3D may be the next best thing. I recommend watching the film first, before picking up the book.
The Martian
2015 | USA | Action/Adventure/Sci-fi | English| 142min | PG13 (Some coarse language and disturbing scenes)
Watch the trailer here:
