The Martian (Ridley Scott)

[TGM]

THE MARTIAN

Director: Ridley Scott

imdb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/?ref_=nv_sr_1)

http://imvideo2.aufeminin.com/video1/20150807/v510581_23668_2_HD.jpg

[Spinal]

Great casting and good adapted screenplay which improve the dialogue and characterizations from the book. However, curiously, the film has a remarkable lack of tension considering the central character's situation. Although the film retains the love for science's ability to help humans overcome adversity, it loses the novel's sense of overwhelming, never-ending peril. It's hard to ever feel too worried about Mark Watney, despite Matt Damon's charismatic, committed performance. Scott's depiction of space travel and exploration is miles behind recent films such as Gravity and Interstellar and so, ultimately, the film is gently engaging, rather than viscerally thrilling.

[Mr. McGibblets]

I really liked the first 20 minutes or so and most of the parts that involved Damon figuring things out by himself on Mars. The parts on Earth mostly dragged and it would have been better to get that information from Watney's point of view as he found out about it. Only Donald Glover (in about 2 minutes) stood out among the many names they brought in for the supporting cast.

And the plotting all felt really written and planned out.

The airlock seemed to blow literally because there were no obstacles left at the time. The Deus Ex Machina with the Chinese came out of nowhere. It was always obvious that the Hermes crew would become involved again because they kept showing them. And there's very little sense of danger to any of it.

[Peng]

The airlock seemed to blow literally because there were no obstacles left at the time. The Deus Ex Machina with the Chinese came out of nowhere. It was always obvious that the Hermes crew would become involved again because they kept showing them. And there's very little sense of danger to any of it.

I really liked the film and thought it was a pretty excellent work of adaptation from Scott, but yeah some of these should be worked a little bit more into the film...

In the book there are more exits to the hub, but Mark keeps going in and out of only one, which isn't designed to for such extended period of use, and something (I forgot) became looser and looser, until it finally leads to that blow. Also, the Chinese have a bit more of political undertone in the book, where the scientists from both countries (or maybe only the Chinese side, I can't clearly remember) try to work out how the Chinese higher-ups will allow this help without feeling of giving it for free. The conclusion is that Chinese will play a much boosted-up role in the next expedition. The film alludes to this only at the end (although the constant presence of the Chinese personnels might be their version of this part in the book), showing a Chinese astronauts on the next mission, along with flag on the new Ares ship.

[DavidSeven]

It was a little too self-aware and winky for me. I don't know if that's the source material or Goddard's contribution, but I thought the relentless attempts to be jokey undermined the inherent drama of the situation. It's also a shame that, while the film wants to put intelligence on a pedestal, it doesn't seem to believe its audience has any intelligence itself. I honestly felt like I was having details explained to me like a five year old. Do high-level NASA scientists really fly pens around a room to illustrate their points? Let us do some of the work.

Damon is good, and the whole thing functions fine as the obvious crowd-pleaser it wants to be. However, I found it lacking in ideas and really affecting drama. Maybe the thing is grander in 3D, but I found the standard version to come up short in spectacle as well.

This gets a shrug from me. I can see why it's broadly appealing, but its aggressive pandering to Joe Public really limits it from being great.

[transmogrifier]

The source material has almost every single character telling the same type of sardonic jokes, so that is an explanation for that.

[Watashi]

Great movie. I loved that no one dies. There's no villain. It's just pure 2 1/2 hours of science porn. I never felt it was simplified to me. Only one guy goes "can you repeat that in English" and it was played as a joke. I love that it's a movie that fucks cynicism in the ass and solves its problems through cooperation.

This could have easily turned into a sentimental "America! Fuck yeah!" movie, but it was really an "Earth! Fuck yeah" movie.

[TGM]

Seeing as this is currently being held up against a number of movies...

Interstellar > Gravity > The Martian

And also, the other big comparisons its being held up against across the web is Ridley Scott's other recent, less critically acclaimed films, so...

The Counselor > The Martian > Prometheus > Exodus: Gods and Kings

So then, altogether now...

Interstellar > The Counselor > Gravity > The Martian > Prometheus > Exodus: Gods and Kings

:P

I thought The Martian was a perfectly fine movie, and it was probably a smart move to make it more of a comedy so as to differentiate itself from the much more serious Interstellar and Gravity, to which immediate comparisons are sort of a given. That said, it's also a lot more light than those movies, and doesn't pack nearly as much of a punch that stays with you as a result. So, a fun outing, good solid performances all around, really nothing objectionable, but it's still just lacking a certain something to really elevate it from being merely a good popcorn flick to something truly phenomenal on the level of those other two space films.

Also, I just really think The Counselor is a criminally underrated film. Fucking loved the shit out of that movie.

[TGM]

Also,

https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xat1/v/t1.0-9/12122417_10153657216535789_916 3724216341606987_n.jpg?oh=d8c8 55f381d4fe4816f8ce78a61e9719&oe=5685F8CF

[Mal]

This was 100000% exactly the movie I expected it to be. It took no chances and Matt Damon was his normal charming self. The end.

[Pop Trash]

It's hard to deny the calculating crowd-pleasing elements that lock into place like a finely tuned space rover, and I don't mean any of that like it's a bad thing. I get some of the criticisms, but I ultimately side closer to Wats in that I appreciate this as an old fashioned Hollywood yarn, well told, with problem solving and teamwork winning out. It does go a bit overboard by the end, however. It also isn't nearly as formally ambitious as Gravity, but I did enjoy all the "hey I gotta build something!" montages.

[Fezzik]

I came here to the site this morning to see what you guys thought of this one, because I am kinda perplexed by the praise being thrown at it in the mainstream media.

Don't get me wrong, its not bad at all, but it felt very run of the mill for me in terms of stakes considering what was going on.

I never felt truly worried for Watney, and I honestly think the light, jokey tone mentioned before added to that. I'm not asking for a constant sense of dread, and I know that the point of the movie was that Watney was scared but knew he had stuff to do so he didn't let it consume him, but even so, it just felt light.

Damon was charismatic, yes, but other than being alone on camera most of the time and therefore doing a lion's share of the work, did he really raise any eyebrows with his performance? He played Matt Damon. And yes, he plays Matt Damon better than anyone else in the world, but I didn't get a sense of him as a character in this one. I got a sense of Matt Damon being trapped on Mars, with a lot of scientific knowledge to back him up.

As a tale, its fine, but I don't understand the plaudits being thrown at it.

As for Glover, he was fine, but I felt he was undermined by one of my biggest pet peeves in screenwriting. He says "It might be easier to..." and then his eyes widen and he runs out of the room. I hate that crap. I understand its for the dramatic reveal later but there has GOT to be a better way to make this exchange happen. It insensed me and took me out of the movie for a few minutes.

This makes it sound like I hated it. Far from it. It was an enjoyable film, I just don't see it as great as so many others seem to.

[transmogrifier]

Okay enough. Needed a stronger focus on Watney for the first half and his fight to stay alive. Needed more on the Hermes crew in the second.

[number8]

I like that the survival situation is dire enough without the help of any allegorical tragic backstory.

Cuaron.

[Mysterious Dude]

Decent, entertaining movie. One thing I never really felt, though, was Watney's aloneness. I know there are some world class actors here, but I think I might have liked it better if it had only been about Watney, and we would learn about the drama happening on earth the way he does. Most of the characters are undeveloped anyway. Jessica Chastain's character likes disco music, but it's kind of an abstract character trait; only Watney is affected by it.

[Ezee E]

Eh. I guess. Enjoyable enough with the cast involved, but as mentioned, there's never any tension. I never once thought that anyone was in peril, nor was I really invested in HOW the inevitable end would come out. It kind of just streamed along.

The movie is best when it's showing a character with amazing backdrops, whether it's space or Mars... Great looking in that respect, and of course that can be expected from Crowe.

Donald Glover might be the best character out of the whole thing. I also like how it is about how humans ultimately caring for each other in the end.

[Wryan]

Holy hell this is absolutely a product of its time. I'll call it the "wait, what?" social media wit aesthetic, if only because I'm stealing that from a complaint another critic had of the use of that exact line (and humor like it) in Frozen even though that movie takes place where and when it does. Fezzik's complaint about the screenwriting 101 moment is both apt and understated--this movie is jam-packed with that crap, from the use of some variant of "Let's get to it/Let's go get our boy" after nearly every scene in which people hash out a plan to the do-they-imagine-this-constitutes-subtlety use of "I Will Survive" on the credit roll to the humor employed with all the grace of a gong smash. Hope nothing goes wrong....like in the very next scene. That would be bad if anything went wrong in the very next scene.

An older gentleman at my showing had a raucous time with this. Every obvious stinger joke was met with a hearty guffaw (and some applause). Not a single intense moment passed without a very audible "Whew!" I wondered if he was old enough to remember vaudeville. This movie was made for him, and I'm genuinely happy he had such a delightful time with it. I did enjoy it, more or less. The acting and visual presentation of both the planet and Watney's situation were the high points. The writing and direction were not. Yet I was moved at the right times. It's not for nothing that the best moments were the least insistent, like Watney's message for his parents to be relayed thru the commander.

(Liked Interstellar better, btw.)

EDIT: Actually, I thought Jeff Daniels was terrible. So, almost all the acting.

[Ezee E]

I didn't understand Jeff Daniels' smugness when Glover was talking about his discovery. "I'm the Director of NASA."

Nobody knows who the Director of NASA is. Shut up.

Still don't know who Kristen Wiig was suppose to be, and if she had any contribution at all.

[number8]

I didn't understand Jeff Daniels' smugness when Glover was talking about his discovery. "I'm the Director of NASA."

Nobody knows who the Director of NASA is. Shut up.

Still don't know who Kristen Wiig was suppose to be, and if she had any contribution at all.

650077219490955264

[Lazlo]

I didn't understand Jeff Daniels' smugness when Glover was talking about his discovery. "I'm the Director of NASA."

Nobody knows who the Director of NASA is. Shut up.

Still don't know who Kristen Wiig was suppose to be, and if she had any contribution at all.

I dunno, I figure a guy that works for NASA/JPL might know who the director of NASA is.

[Irish]

................

[Ezee E]

I should retract my yay.

[Dukefrukem]

I did not want this to be more of a comedy than an Apollo 13/ Prometheus crossover. But I got the former and it's an entertaining popcorn movie for what it is (I guess) but so is Chronicles of Riddick which I'd watch 1000 times more than this. The dialog is way too expositiony. And there is too much 4th wall/found footage junk. "I'm gonna hafta science the shit out of this". Who talks like that?

[[ETM]]

That line is better than anything anyone said in CoR.

[Skitch]

I firmly believe Matt Damon talks like that.

[number8]

I mean, I talk like that.

[Dukefrukem]

Okay, what astronaut talks like that?

The most believable performance in this movie was Donald Glover's.

[Mysterious Dude]

The book was actually a blog before it was a book, and a lot of the dialogue did come across as having been written by a sarcastic blogger.

[Ezee E]

Okay, what astronaut talks like that?

The most believable performance in this movie was Donald Glover's.

Good point here. I don't understand the raves for the performances in this movie, especially Matt Damon, who's really just Matt Damon.

[TGM]

Good point here. I don't understand the raves for the performances in this movie, especially Matt Damon, who's really just Matt Damon.

I feel exactly the same regarding Damon's performance and the accompanying awards recognition. Sure, it's another one man show, but unlike Tom Hanks or James Franco and the like, Damon doesn't really do anything exemplary with it othet than just be himself. Hell, Ryan Rhynolds in Buried deserved more recognition than Damon does here.

[TGM]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRQlji3bCZI

[D_Davis]

"I'm gonna hafta science the shit out of this". Who talks like that?

Reddit, and people who liked the Science Fucking Rules!! Facebook page.

[Ezee E]

How did they completely skip over Glover and Wiig in the Honest Trailer?

[Dukefrukem]

"Mars will come to fear my botney powers" Bleh!

[Spinal]

My favorite part was Gilly.

[Skitch]

"Mars will come to fear my botney powers" Bleh!

Yeeeah....I'd say that.

[[ETM]]

Botney?

[Dukefrukem]

botanie?

[Dead & Messed Up]

This movie was fun!

[Scar]

A couple things:

1) I can complete relate to how Damon spoke.

2) I probably wouldn't recognize my CEO until I got an elbow in the ribs.

3) The movie was rather enjoyable.

[Dukefrukem]

You wouldn't recognize your CEO? What?

[Scar]

You wouldn't recognize your CEO? What?

I'm a 100% field based. If I just was wandering though one of our many corporate locations, I may or may not recognize him.

[Dukefrukem]

I just figured they CGIed the camera lens out of the glass helmet. But no, the glass is completely CGI itself.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CPbISkPqKk

[Lazlo]

Damn, that's impressive.