The Martian
|  Although it is based on the best-selling novel of the same title by computer scientist Andy Weir, Ridley Scott’s The Martian directly evokes a much older movie: Byron Haskin’s Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964), whose sensationalistic tagline “A lone U.S. astronaut pitted against all the odds beyond the earth!” pretty much summarizes both films. Haskin, a former special effects guru who had already directed the 1953 adaptation of H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds and the space adventure From the Earth to the Moon (1958), sought to make Robinson Crusoe on Mars as scientifically accurate as possible in depicting what it would be like for a man to survive for an extended period of time on the surface of the Red Planet, which is exactly what Weir sought to do in his novel and Scott and screenwriter Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods, World War Z) sought to do in their film adaptation. Of course, The Martian has the benefit of nearly 50 years of scientific advancement, including our having actually landed rovers on Mars that have sent back images and video and data showing us exactly what the surface looks like. Haskin had to rely on a lot of speculation, which led his film into incorrect conclusions about Mars’ atmosphere (thin, but breathable for short periods of time) and the surface itself (alas, there are no roving balls of fire wandering around), but the film still holds up decently—until the enslaving aliens arrive near the end.Alas, despite its title, The Martian features no aliens. The “Martian” of the title refers to Mark Watney (Matt Damon), a member of a U.S. space team that has landed on Mars and set up a small base from which they study the planet and collect samples. When a massive storm hits, Mark is mistakenly assumed to have been killed by flying debris and the team’s captain, Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain), makes the decision to abandon the mission and return to Earth, thus leaving Mark behind. When he awakens—wounded, but alive—Mark realizes that he is the only living being on Mars—the planet’s sole resident. Having no way to contact NASA or his team and knowing that the next human-led mission isn’t due for four years, Mark must figure out how to survive on the inhospitable planet’s surface with only the resources that were left behind. His primary challenge is sustaining himself with food, since there is only enough for about a year. As luck would have it, Mark is a botanist by training, and he figures out how to farm potatoes by setting up a garden inside his shelter and fertilizing the Mars soil using his own dried feces. Meanwhile, NASA scientists quickly figure out that he has been left behind by noting differences in satellite images of his base camp, which leaves them with the conundrum of whether they should send a rescue mission without knowing if he will survive long enough for it to arrive. NASA chief Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels), working with Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the director of Mars missions, Mitch Henderson (Sean Bean), the crew supervisor, and Benedict Wong (Bruce Ng), the head of the Jet Propulsion Lab, get to work putting together a mission that will provide Mark with additional supplies. This is a months-long endeavor, as it involves going through all the steps needed to launch a rocket 35 million miles across space. There are numerous scientific and technological roadblocks to overcome, not to mention the public relations nightmare involved in first announcing an astronaut’s death and then announcing that he’s not dead, but has been left behind on a distant planet. Fairly evenly divided between Mark’s work on Mars to keep himself alive and NASA’s work back on Earth to find a way to retrieve him, The Martian is, in essence, a big-budget studio production that is almost entirely about scientific problem solving. No one pulls a gun. No one gets into a fight. There isn’t even really a villain, unless you consider Mars’ lethal environment (no oxygen to breathe, freezing cold temperatures at night, lifeless dirt on the ground, sudden storms, etc.) villainous. This makes The Martian an absolutely fascinating movie in that it dispenses with so much of the standard violent-action fare we have come to expect from science fiction films and instead returns the genre to its roots in the thrill of exploration and the wonders of science. Ridley Scott, the stylish director well known for a wide range of science fiction films including Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), and, most recently, Prometheus (2013), keeps the film simple and direct. He relies heavily on Damon’s solid performance and likable screen presence, which is a good move since Damon has made something of a career playing really smart guys (Will Hunting, Jason Bourne, etc.). Thus, it’s not much of a stretch to accept his character’s intense intelligence and expansive knowledge of not just botany, but also physics and engineering. Damon plays Mark with a dry sense of humor, and he keeps the film buoyant and engaging with his running commentary, which he sometimes directs into a video journal and at other times directs to no one in particular. The film does seem to soften the unavoidable psychological effects of being isolated for so long, especially when said isolation comes with the constant threat of death, but Damon sells his character so well that we can believe that he wills himself to stay sane with his own witty chatter. “I’m going to science the s—t out of this planet,” he amusingly declares at one point, thus demonstrating both his own self-confidence and the film’s faith in the human mind, something we don’t see as often as we probably should.
Copyright ©2016 James Kendrick Thoughts? E-mail James Kendrick All images copyright © 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Overall Rating: 
(3.5)
