One thing that has stayed consistent throughout all his movie however are the visuals and The Martian is no exception to this. It has stunning vistas of space and the Mars landscape that in 3D are truly breath-taking and when things get more high octane the action is also just as stunning with some very competent camerawork and interesting angles that really show off the most interesting aspects of space travel.
The heart of this movie however is not in how technically impressive it is but in its characters who are all well fleshed out human being as opposed to the cut-outs you see in many other Hollywood blockbusters these days. They are all bought to life exceptionally by the cast and I am pleased to say that at no point throughout this 2 hour 21 minute film was I ever not fully convinced that they were real people facing a very real problem.
The standout performances come from Sean Bean in a minor role as Mitch Henderson where he really gave above and beyond from the small but integral role he was given. Another highlight was Michel Pena (second time this year he has done an ace performance, the first being in Ant-man) as Rick Martinez who brought wit and a light heartedness to the film.
The real star (obviously) was Matt Damon in what is perhaps his best performance of all time as Mark Watney, the astronaut that gets stranded on Mars. He portrays Watney as a lovable jerk who in the face of danger tries to make the best of things which introduces some very funny lines into what is a surprisingly upbeat and funny movie. He also brings home, with excellent depth, the torn and depressing emotions somebody would go through in a situation such as this and makes you ride the ups and downs with him as opposed to just being an observer.
With Damon doing such an excellent job it is always kind of a shame that the film has to switch back to the events on Earth as they aren't as interesting as the Mars goings on. This is emphasised in an especially long Earth sequence that lasts about 20 minutes that does get fatiguing towards the end, so when it switches back to Damon its like a breath of fresh air to break the political side of things.
This movie also does suffer from being a bit long so when the climax hits it doesn't have the same impact as it might do if the movie was just about 15 minuets shorter. This is probably due to the fact that it doesn't go through many environments, switching from Mars to a grey building on Earth and back again, not giving they eye much to feast on in the last act that we haven't had our fill of earlier in the movie.
Saying this though, the film does come to a very satisfying and intense climax that really kept me on the edge of my seat throughout(even though Neil Degrasse Tyson had already spoiled it for me on twitter). The wrap up scenes don't feel unwelcome or too long as they give us much wanted closure on all the main players of the film that really makes you feel you got your moneys worth when leaving the cinema.
Overall this is an excellent movie with very few flaws that is a fun time despite the depressing nature of the subject matter. Ridley Scott does a great job at the helm, making up for some of his recent flops. Although it makes you wonder if it should really be credited so heavily to him since the source material was so good and did a lot of the work to start with.
Thanks for reading another review and I urge you to go out and see this film, especially in 3D as it is absolutely worth it.
I will be doing a post a week from now on as I am also busy with university work so its hard to fit it in.
-Joe
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