'The Martian' review

"I'm gonna have to science the shit out of this!"

'The Martian' is the latest directorial effort from Ridley Scott which follows Mark Watney, portrayed by Matt Damon, who finds himself stranded on Mars when a storm strikes during a manned mission. After a slew of critical disappointments, many fans were waiting to see how Ridley Scott's latest feature panned out, and whether it could promise a return to form for the legendary director. With a popular novel as source material and a spectacular cast, it was looking hopeful. Just as an important side note, if you have not yet seen the trailers for 'The Martian', I highly recommend you skip them. They spoil a lot of details in the film that would have otherwise provided dramatic tension, and they actually even spoil some content from the third act of the film.

With all that said, it feels great to finally say that 'The Martian' really demonstrates Ridley Scott back on form. The film struck similarities among the general public with recent films such as 'Gravity' and 'Interstellar' (especially given shared cast members with the latter), but perhaps the best compliment I can pay 'The Martian' is how unique the experience feels. Scott trades the glum and ultra-serious tones that similar films use, and instead presents us with something genuinely fun and entertaining to watch while masterfully blending in just enough drama to keep up the suspense. This is undoubtedly due to three main aspects: Scott's masterful directing comeback, Matt Damon's extremely likable portrayal of astronaut Watney, and a damn near perfect screenplay by Drew Goddard. The three work so well together to ensure that scenes following one abandoned character avoid the pitfalls of becoming overlong and dreary, and instead become the most entertaining parts of the film.

The film, of course, has a little more going on to it than simply following Damon trying to survive. And without going into too much detail, the scenes that don't follow him are almost as entertaining as the ones that do. Once again, a stellar supporting cast really helped these scenes. The film uses huge and recognizable names for some really small roles that helped to develop what could have easily become cliche forgettable characters into memorable highlights. I won't mention specific actors regarding small roles, both for the sake of keeping the surprise as well as not hyping up such small roles, but I will call out Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean and Chiwetel Ejiofor for their larger roles. One thing the film handled especially well in these sequences was the conflict between characters. Again, without going into detail, the film handled both sides of an argument equally and let the audience decide what the best viewpoint was, and didn't have to fall back on a cheap "evil" character reveal to create conflict like another certain space exploration film did.

As if an astonishing screenplay, cast and director weren't enough to hook you in, 'The Martian' is also a visual marvel. The 3D actually added a layer of depth to the film and helped to draw you in to Mars. The juxtaposition of scenes set on Earth, which usually had a drab grey look, and the ones on Mars with the vivid red was also an interesting use of visuals, and one which made Mars seem less of a desolate hell and more of an attractive scenery. The CGI was always extremely convincing, and sequences never looked fake or poor. And perhaps most importantly, the film was shot beautifully, especially the scenes on Mars. Throw in an awesomely nostalgic soundtrack that almost rivals 'Guardians of the Galaxy' for oddball space mixtape and some pretty damn spot on science that was presented in an interesting matter, and 'The Martian' is perhaps the best space exploration film we've seen in a long time.

The Martian  -  9 / 10