The Martian is a brand new science fiction film from famed director Ridley Scott, who some may know for his work on Bladerunner (1982), Alien (1979) or Gladiator (2000). The film stars Matt Damon, Kate Mara, Jessica Chastain, Sean Bean and Jeff Daniels. The Martian is a story about an astronaut named Mark Watney who gets left behind by his crew on Mars, they think him dead after an accident, but he isn’t. He’s left there all on his own and he’s alive and must survive.
The Martian Trailer
The Martian Review
As a science fiction film, The Martian is one of the best films the genre has had in quite a long time. As a standalone film for 2015, The Martian is likely to top many cinema goers must watch lists and should definitely be at the top of most people’s lists. Having seen the film in its entirety, there is really very little to complain about, the special effects are wonderful, the 3D is great, the acting is superb and the characterisation is perfect.
We are introduced early on to astronaut Mark Watney and his team, an accident happens and he’s left behind. The film from then on is split between scenes with Matt Damon on the planet, which is pretty much most of the film. But we also watch the rescue attempt from the team at NASA, which is pretty much the rest of the cast. Ridley Scott balanced the film very well and the tone of the film is serious in some moments, but for the most part is filled with jokes, witty comments and funny banter from the characters. It’s just a joy to watch and it’s not the super serious science fiction film many would expect, which is a great thing, it’s different and it’s very unique.
The acting from Matt Damon here was some of his best and even though the film is fairly lighthearted a lot of the time, he really gets to shine throughout. It was interesting seeing his character transform as the film went on and his isolation continued. Some of the standout cast members in The Martian, were Jeff Daniels who gives a similar performance to what he did with his character in The Newsroom, but was very entertaining and the head of NASA. Jessica Chastain did very well as the captain of the crew and the rest of the cast all were fairly convincing.
Special effects wise, the film has it all, I’m not going to say The Martian has the best special effects the world has ever seen, but it was very convincing. Where the film was at its best though was with the sounds, there’s some parts of the film where there are things happening on Mars where little sounds make all the difference to the feel of the film. There’s a scene where Mark Watney is inside and there’s a tonne of the dirt flying around during a storm outside and it was kind of scary to listen to at a certain point.
What’s most interesting about The Martian is its script. Characters are all very interesting and the scientific component of the film was incredibly intriguing. It’s not often that you see science films out there these days where characters spend a long time solving problems, which is what Mark Watney had to do in this film. From the growing of potato’s to managing his water and air supply, it was all very interesting. There’s so much science in The Martian that it’ll probably inspire quite a lot of young people to become interested in space travel science at school, which is nice.
Most films fall down quite a lot when it comes to their endings, with things always wrapping up too nicely or far too vaguely for the audience to be pleased with it. But The Martian holds up very well from the beginning until the end. Unlike last year’s best science fiction film, Interstellar, The Martian doesn’t try to confuse its audience with something to think about, it’s about science and technology and what people can do with it to solve problems. The Martian is just very interesting to watch and that’s its biggest strength.
There’s nothing more to say about The Martian to be totally honest with you all, it’s just a very enjoyable film. When you look at the acting ,the special effects, the science fiction component, the directing and the script, it all just comes together very well. When looking at The Martian and considering if it’s worth your money to go out and see, I can’t see any reason to say no to you unless you don’t happen to like science fiction at all, then probably don’t go and see it. But for anyone else out there, it’s well worth a trip to the cinema because it’s just very good.
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