The Martian

"I'm going to have to science the hell out of this."

I knew the minute I saw the trailer for this movie that I really needed to see it. It has such a wonderfully unique premise, a man stranded on Mars, accidentally left behind by his team when they thought he had died. There were many wonderful surprises to be found in this movie. Number one being this is actually quite a funny movie. 

Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) is part of a manned mission on Mars, referred to as Ares III, along with four other team members, Commander Melissa Lewis (played by Jessica Chastain), Rick Martinez (played by Michael Pena), Beth Johansson (played by Kate Mara), and Chris Beck (played by Sebastian Stan). When a severe storm looks to hit their housing and their transport, they make the decision to abort the mission and evacuate Mars. During the chaos of the storm, Mark is hit by debris and carried off by the storm. Presuming he's dead, the rest of the crew carry out the evacuation. However, Watney survived and awakes to find himself stranded on Mars with the communication equipment destroyed in the storm. After patching himself up and recuperating/panicking for the first couple days alone, he decides he's not going to die on Mars and begins taking stock of his supplies and figuring out how to grow food for himself on a planet where nothing grows and there is no water ("Fortunately, I know the recipe," Watney says in one of his video diaries he keeps). He sets up a large terrarium inside the Habitat unit and comes up with an ingenious way to create water for his crops of potatoes, created from ones that were sent for the team to enjoy on Thanksgiving. He also begins modifying the battery powered rover vehicle to be able to make longer journeys so he can retrieve equipment such as the old Pathfinder probe and later Ares IV supplies that were sent ahead of that mission's crew, due to arrive in three years. 

Meanwhile, NASA is reviewing satellite photos of Mars and engineers Vincent Kapoor (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Mindy Park (played by Mackenzie Davis) quickly realize Watney is still alive. Fearing Watney may die soon on his own, NASA director Teddy Sanders (played by Jeff Daniels) instructs that the other crew members of Ares III not be notified that Watney is still alive. Once Watney is able to re-establish contact with NASA using parts of the Pathfinder probe, they set out with coming up with a plan to rescue Watney. 

I'm just going to flat out say it. I loved this movie, especially with the character of Mark Watney. He's in this incredibly dire situation, but yet he is able to not only keep his mind clear and figure out a way to survive on a planet, but keeps a great sense of humor about it as well. Among my favorites is his remark that since he is growing crops on Mars, he has officially colonized it, finishing with, "In your face, Neil Armstrong." There was just something rather inspiring about a character that no matter what problem or setback they face (and some are pretty dire), picks himself up, brushes himself off and sets about fixing the next problem, all along the way making another video diary charting his progress. Even when disaster strikes and things are looking their worst and Watney asks Melissa to deliver a message to his parents in case he doesn't make it, he prefaces it by saying, "I'm not giving up." 

The group back on Earth trying to figure out how to get Watney home are an equally clever bunch, initially trying to figure out how to get him supplies and planning for him to return with the Ares IV crew. Meanwhile another engineer, Rich Purnell (played by Donald Glover), has another plan involving using the Ares III and slingshot it around Earth to pick up supplies and jet back to Mars to rescue Watney. There is a division in the ranks as Teddy Sanders feels the first plan is best whereas the others think the second is better. What I appreciated about these scenes was there was no villain. Everyone had a very clear and understandable point of view. Sanders doesn't want to unnecessarily risk anyone else's lives for the sake of one man, whereas the others think it's worth the risk. It's easy to see and understand everyone's viewpoints.    

The acting by everyone is top notch, especially Matt Damon as Watney. He brought his character to life beautifully. Donald Glover manages to steal damn near every scene he is in, especially the scene where he demonstrates his plan for Sanders. Ridley Scott makes a nice return to form here as director, after the unfortunate Exodus: Gods and Kings, Drew Goddard did a good job adapting the novel by Andy Weir, crafting a witty and fun script. The special effects are top notch as well, convincingly creating the terrain of Mars wonderfully. The film also has an interesting choice in soundtrack. Upon going through his crew member's belongings, he discovers Lewis' music collection on her laptop and it's almost exclusively disco music, a fact Watney frequently bemoans. 

The Martian is certainly going to be on my list of favorite films of the year. It was an inspiring, moving and at times wickedly funny movie that I thoroughly enjoyed from beginning to end. It's highly, highly recommended.