The Martian **** (2015, Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean, Kate Mara, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kristen Wiig) – Movie Review

Matt Damon stars in director Ridley Scott’s 2015 The Martian as astronaut Mark Watney who is left behind by his evacuating crew, presumed dead after a devastating dust storm during a manned mission to Mars. But Watney survives, stranded alone on the hostile planet. Making for the safety of a sub-station, he does a quick little operation on himself and finds some stuff to survive.

Luckily, he’s a botanist! He starts colonising Mars by growing potatoes in his own poo!! He’s also Mr Resourceful, a brilliant astronaut with a cheery if dry sense of humour, a stack of disco tunes belonging to the expedition’s captain, incredible brains, devastating ingenuity and a will of steel. And no death wish.

As he currently hasn’t a way to signal to Earth that he is alive and it would take a rescue mission years to get the 140 million miles to him anyway, he basically doesn’t stand an Earthly, or a Marsly.

Damon and director Ridley Scott are on fire on the Red Planet. It is perfect material for them and they are perfect for the material. No false steps or wrong moves. Not one, anywhere. Oh, and we have a decent story to tell, and a witty script to play it out. Drew Goddard writes the screenplay from Andy Weir’s book.

You could complain at the lack of originality in the screenplay by Drew Goddard, based on the novel by Andy Weir. The sci-fi survival story bears a marked resemblance to Sandra Bullock’s space vehicle Gravity (2013). But, like one, like half a dozen. Bring them on!

The Martian is less up itself than Gravity. It has got a nice quirky sense of fun, like 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which also used disco tunes for laughs and background noise. ABBA and Bowie (Starman, of course) work every time, don’t they? And obviously we’ll have I Will Survive on the soundtrack too. But, with plenty of tension and a few heart-stopping moments, it is pretty darned serious too. Actually, the all-important tone is just right.

Ridley Scott gets the pacing right too, moving a long, complex narrative along dynamically, by drastic, incisive editing, squeezing his space epic into 140 minutes. As ever, with Scott, it is a brilliant looking production, just astounding, with marvellous cinematography, locations (Jordan) and visual effects and production designs. Oscars must be on the cards for the tech crew. Harry Gregson-Williams’s score is a winner too, varied and complicated.

Also in the cast are Jessica Chastain as the crew captain Melissa Lewis, who makes the fateful decision to leave Damon on Mars, Kristen Wiig as the NASA press boss Annie Montrose, Michael Peña, Sean Bean, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

All of them are fine, but the only other performance of stature comes from Jeff Daniels as NASA boss. He creates a real, complex character, which no one else does, other than Damon. Let’s start a Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor Oscar campaign for them right now, and a Best Director for Scott.

Drew Goddard also wrote the screenplays for Cloverfield, The Cabin in the Woods and World War Z.

On 29 September 2015 NASA said that liquid water runs down canyons and crater walls over the summer months on Mars, boosting hopes for life there.

The Martian won the 2016 Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical and star Matt Damon took home the prize for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical. That’s right, comedy or musical!

The Revenant led the race for the 2016 Oscars with 12 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director (Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu) and Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), with Mad Max: Fury Road scoring 10 and The Martian in third place with an excellent seven, but it won none.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

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