from imdb.com

Michael Crichton type science fiction meets Apollo 13 when Matt Damon gets stranded on the Red Planet.

After watching the movie with some knowledgeable friends, I listened as one friend discussed the details of the Andy Weir book preceding the film. He said most of the book was based on real science with a few small exceptions. That assessment took me back to my reading glory days when I was reading through Crichton’s novels and how much I enjoyed the mixture of science and story.

I don’t need to be convinced completely by the science to enjoy a science fiction flick, I just don’t want my intelligence to be expanded beyond the point of just being plain ridiculous.

I bring these anecdotal notes up to make the point that The Martian does exactly what’s stated above. Everything Matt Damon does as Mark Watney is believable to the extent that he somehow manages to hold together his wit and sanity about him. “I’ m going to have to science the shit out of this,” he says.

The Martian isn’t an introspective film like Gravity. It’s a movie about conflict resolution, into which a tension is built and leaves you on the edge of your seat until you can finally release the breath you’ve been holding in for the last 5 minutes.

The Martian spaces out its tense moments with NASA meetings (the Apollo 13 influence) about tough PR decisions, and eventually tough mission decisions.

The only discredit I would offer The Martian in its storytelling is giving more depth to the Watney character. Everyone appears to love him a hell of a lot and there must be outside of just his sarcastic ball-busting witty remarks. Maybe that’s just it, I don’t know.

Everything else about the movie though is spot-on for a sci-fi fan like me, but I can’t say The Martian is a movie everyone can enjoy. Case in point, the 6 incredibly annoying teenagers sitting behind me talking for the first half hour before leaving to spend the rest of their parents hard earned money on chocolate shakes at PDQ (speculation, but probably true).

PSA: If you like talking during a movie, don’t go to the theatre.

Their will be a lot of talk about the amount of comedic relief in this film, and it did make me wary at points. Does anyone really understand the magnitude of this situation, I ask? Ridley Scott heard me as I said this and does levy some more emotion that surprisingly resonated with me. This is where I state: Look at the source material.

Space is such an unforgiving place, which I’m pretty sure something like that is said by Watney at the end of the film. Many things will not only go wrong for Watney, but NASA as well. At the same token, so many things had to go right.

Watney was left on Mars after a sandstorm nearly takes out their spaceship ride home. Watney gets hit with debris and the Commander of the unit eventually decides that it’s time to leave, alas with a heavy heart, before the whole ship and crew is lost. It’s only natural that later they get a second chance, albeit they have to spend another half year in space.

The most touching moment is watching wisecracking Michael Pena say hello to his family via space Skype and deliver a line that may be overlooked, but was absolutely fantastic in its delivery. “He would’ve done the same for me.” There’s a lot of love and support in this space crew. Chastain, Pena, and Mara all play characters you want to share a drink with.

The Martian is a great film to see once, and a great film to see in theatres, but I’d only recommend seeing it once. There’s nothing shocking about The Martian, but there’s a lot to enjoy, especially if the final frontier is the scenery that keeps you on edge.

Space is scary in reality, and Ridley Scott does a great job of bringing that reality to the big screen, as he has done many times before.