THE MARTIAN (2015)
The Martian is a fun and suspenseful sci-fi adventure directed by Ridley Scott from Drew (The Cabin In The Woods) Goddard’s screenplay, based on Andy Weir’s book. It tells the story of astronaut Mark Watney who, while on a manned mission to Mars, is left behind after being lost in a storm and thought dead. Now Watney must find some way to let NASA know he’s alive and then survive till help comes…which would be long after his food supply runs out.
This is a very well crafted and really entertaining survival story of one man’s determination to overcome the impossible…living on a lifeless planet. There are some fun and clever ways Watney uses his knowledge as a botanist and astronaut to grow food, elongate the use of crucial equipment and communicate with Earth. Damon is great as the ever chipper Watney, who refuses to give up even when his food supply is damaged. Meanwhile on Earth it’s a race against time to try to figure out a rescue before Watney’s time runs out. If the film has any flaw is that as a crowd pleaser, we do feel manipulated when things go right…and wrong…at exactly a crucial time to elicit an emotional response or suspense…though it works more often than not. That and even at 141 minutes, it seems like certain things are rushed to keep the film at a reasonable length. The film does jump ahead a lot.
Overall, this is a very enjoyable flick with a totally engaging hero played by Matt Damon. It’s fast moving and cleverly written with just the right amount of sentiment. Damon is supported by great cast including Jessica Chastain, Sean Bean, Jeff Daniels, Kate Mara, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kristen Wiig, Ant-Man’s Michael Peña and The Winter Soldier’s Sebastian Stan. Recommended!
-MonsterZero NJ
MonsterZero NJ's Movie Madhouse 
Great review 🙂 Personally, I was somewhat disappointed in this film though. It works more as a fish out of the water comedy (our lead character’s hatred of 70’s pop culture) than it does as visual filmmaking. I seriously do not understand why critics are praising this as something unique when director Brian de Palma did it so much better both visually and emotionally with Mission to Mars back in 2000. Yes, I actually love that film. The screenwriter of The Martian is Drew Godard and to this day his strongest work as both a director and a screenwriter is Cabin in the Woods from 2012 even though Joss Whedon co-wrote it. Speaking of Cabin in the Woods, my most recent blog entry on cinematiccoffee is a blog post regarding my favorite films by director Sam Raimi. I am pretty sure you know what his breakthrough film was? 🙂 I will give you a hint, it has Bruce Campbell 🙂 Anyway, keep up the great work as always 🙂
I didn’t think it unique either, just it was a fun crowd pleaser.