Ridley Scott is one of those directors who has managed to maintain a great reputation despite his directorial efforts being of extremely variable quality. I’m not a fan of Blade Runner but accept that many people believe it to be a classic, and I would bracket Alien in the same way. Other than that, you have the viscerally brilliant Black Hawk Down, and that’s almost it. A few decent thrillers such as Body of Lies, Someone to Watch Over Me, and Black Rain, the crowd pleasing Thelma and Louise, an overrated epic in Gladiator and an interesting failure, Prometheus. It doesn’t actually add up to a great body of work.
So, I was a bit wary approaching The Martian. At well over two hours, it had the potential to be ponderous and dull. I couldn’t be more wrong! This is a beautifully shot, compelling, clever, funny, and ultimately exciting movie. Matt Damon stars as Mark Watney an astronaut on a mission to Mars. When he is beset by a sudden storm, the rest of the crew of his ship abandon the planet in an emergency take off, leaving Mark behind, believing that he is dead. Mark has to find a way of staying alive on the planet until a rescue mission can reach him.
It is fascinating to see his resourcefulness both in finding a way to grow food on a barren planet and also in managing to make contact with Earth to let them know he is still alive. A little smug maybe, but I think you’d have to have a lot of self confidence to be in his job, Damon is convincing as a determined man doing all he can to stay alive. However, my favourite scenes are those involving ground control and the boffins at NASA. Reminiscent of Apollo 13, which isn’t a bad thing in my book, each character is well-defined even if they only appear briefly. Excellent performances by Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and MacKenzie Davies help in that respect.
The scenes of his crew coming to terms with their decision to leave him behind and their decision to put their lives on the line to save him are also really well realised, with Jessica Chastain and Kate Mara (following on from her impressive turn in Captive) particularly good.
Being nit-picky, I found the end rescue scenes a little predictable and over-the-top, but I am prepared to forgive that as I enjoyed the rest of it so much.
Rating: 9 out of 10