Well, as promised, here's a blog post about that fabulous movie I saw Thursday evening... Yeah, that's right: THE MARTIAN. I was over the moon (eh eh) when I found out I was going to see the movie!
The Martian
2015
Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Sebastian Stan, Sean Bean, Kate Mara, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kirsten Wiig, ...
Lenght: 141min= 2h21min
Genre: SciFi, adventure, humor, action,...!
The abbreviation LOL is applicable in this movie. Literally. Big time. Also, watching-with-hands-before-mouth-because-your-jaw-dropped-from-amazement is applicable. Man, I was exhausted when I walked out of the theatre. My body went from tense to relaxed to tense to relaxed again in matter of seconds. That can only mean one thing: the movie is a gem.
Let me give a very short summary of the plot: NASA has sent two manned missions to Mars. Mark Watney is the botanic/mechanist on board of the mission Ares 3 crew, the third mission to be sent to the red planet. Due to a sand storm they had to abandon their mission prematurly. Mark Watney gets hit by an antena and falls behind. Against all odds, he survives. Now he's stranded all alone on a planet with no way to contact Earth or enough food to keep him alive. How on earth (eh eh) is he going to survive?
As you might have noticed, this is the same summary as the one on my post about the book. It's the same story so why not? Anyone who's interested in the book version of this film, feel free to read my 'review' about it. "Fuck it, I'm king of Mars" - the Martian by Andy Weir (book 'review'). It's a must read. And this is definitely a must see.
One quick thing before I give my opinion on this movie and before you watch the movie (if you want to watch it): please note this is nothing like Interstellar. I've heard some people were disappointed as they were expecting something similar to Interstellar. I'd hate to see that happening to you. That's it :)
I'm not very familiar with Ridley Scott's work (yes yes, shame on me) so I can't really compare this movie to any of his other films. But what I can do, is raving about what a tremendous job he has done on the Martian. They've used a variation of cameras, including GoPros, to create an authentic feeling of a logbook. Obviously in the book it's a written logbook, in the movie it's a video diary. You have some amazing close ups and some mesmerising wide shots, from above, below, left, right... Every angle. You can't not let your jaw drop. Even if you don't like Matt Damon, go see the movie just to appreciate the shots of the scenery.
As you might recall from my book 'review' I mentionned that Andy Weir gives us inside information to build the tension. Scott approaches that via a different way, but the feeling you get whilst watching the movie is exactly the same as whilst reading the book. Which I think is very special. I've never really experienced that before.
Story wise, they changed a few small things from the book, which is inevitable, but they stayed damn close to the source. Love it. And the script! Good God, so close to what Andy Weir has written! You don't find that very often. Literally from page to screen, exactly the same. Of course, the word 'fuck' was left out as they want it to be more childfriendly. It's still a 12A though x) It is so funny and smart and witty at times you'll laugh out loud. And it's one thing to have a funny script, it's another to have a cast who can actually get the timings right.
Which brings me to my next point (see what I did there?x)): the cast. They all give a convincing performance, producing some very memorable one liners. Eventhough Matt doesn't share that much screentime with his co stars, you do believe that his character has a close relationship with his fellow crew members and that everyone on Earth is doing their best to get this guy home. Kirsten Wiig in a more serious, yet funny roll. Matt Damon who shows a different side of himself. Sebastian Stan, Jessica Chastain, Kate Mara, Chiwetel Ejiofor, ... All of them. Simply a splendid cast. Nothing more I can say really.
And besides the memorable one liners, there is one scene that had me not only laughing out loud, but literally shaking with laughter. Sean Bean plays Mitch Henderson. At one point in the movie, at NASA, there is a meeting called 'project Elrond' to discuss a new idea about how to safe Mark Watney. Sean Bean's charachter Mitch is sitting around the conference table when Kirsten Wiig's charachter Annie askes: What the fuck is 'Project Elrond'?. Sean Bean plays Boromir in the Lord of the Rings. His character attends the Council of Elrond to discuss what should happen to the One Ring. The scene in this movie, where they're talking about Lord of the Rings, with him sitting at a table... That is movie gold right there x)
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| Still from the movie. Source: IMDb |
Splendid score/soundtrack as well. Although it does remind you of Guardians of the Galaxy at times. And of Wall-E! Hear me out. It reminded me of Guardians because you have this upbeat 70's music as main soundtrack during this movie. Okay, in Guardians it s 80's music, but you know what I mean. It gives a completely different vibe to an outerspace movie. Which might be a dealbreaker for some, but it wasn't for me. I like the fact that you can be millions of miles away, on a different planet and still have a soundtrack from ABBA or Gloria Estefan. Very absurd x) And true to the book! The reason why I had to think of Wall-E is because of a editing choice Scott made. At one point in the movie you have a wide shot from above where you can hear the music echoing to emphasize the loneliness of Matt's character. Wall-E has exactly the same scene. + they're both abandonded on a deserted planet x)
I saw the movie without subtitles. Which brings me to the only less positive point about the movie. I think if I didn't read the book I might have had some major issues with following the story. There is some serious science chat and without subtitles it kind of went straight over me. I zoned out. But my colleague, who is from London, hadn't read the book said it was very clear and not difficult to follow at all. Well then, was that a reminder that English isn't my first language... x) Although I am reminded every week whilst I'm writing my blog posts x) So I can imagine that watching the movie with subtitles might be a bit easier.
And speaking of serious science chat. If a film crew wants to use NASA in their movie, NASA needs to be involved in the scientific part of the movie. Which means that quite a few pages of the script were in fact written by NASA. Which means that every scientific explanation is in fact a fact. How cool is that!? It's like with Interstallar, where they had help from Kip Thorne and they actually made a new scientific discovery! Okay, that didn't exactly happen here, but it is said that surviving on Mars like Mark Watney does, is in theory possible. How cool is that!? I wouldn't be suprised if there are any nominations for an Oscar or Golden Globe... *knocks on wood*
Lastly, the coolest thing about this movie is that they didn't portray all the smart kids as the cliché nerds. All the characters are very intellegent and witty and that shows that being smart does not equal being the clumsy nerd with the big glasses. I wouldn't be surprised if NASA gets a sudden burst of new astronauts next year :)
As usual, there is a taste of what you can expect ;)
Trailer
Clips
Anyway, this is my opinion on the movie and my reasons why you should definitely watch it as soon as it hits theatres by the end of this week!
Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara
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