Ridley Scott's The Martian

[redhawk23]

While on Mars Mark Watney transforms from Mark Walberg into Scraggle Bearded DiCaprio.

 

[Micromind]

Really liked the movie, also it looked like a really big budget movie.

8/10.

 

[Drizzle]

"Starman" has been in my head since seeing this.

 

[Schlosser85]

"Starman" has been in my head since seeing this.

Same.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Saw this last night, really enjoyed it, although I really liked Prometheus this was Scott's best movie in a while, some really funny moments with great acting and characters you could really root for. As per usual with Ridley space movies the effects were sublime and the story had a lot of emotion to it.

My only issue was everything seemed to go a bit easy considering the settings of Space and Mars, too much went to plan for me and when something didn't there always seemed to be an easy solution. But this is literally a minor gripe as I understand this was supposed to be an uplifting movie.

Overall loved it though, 8.5/10

 

[Anita18]

Just saw it last night - LOVED it!

Obviously there are some scientific inaccuracies: dust storms on Mars wouldn't blow people over, I'm thinking a powered USB port wouldn't have the oomph to blow up a bomb in a steel container, and I remember Pathfinder wasn't attached to parachutes. BUT the spirit of it was very much what I relate to as a former scientist who knows quite a few engineers. (Unlike Tomorrowland cough cough retch I hated that movie.)

We listen to music, we talk to ourselves, we try to make things light so the gravity of what we're working with doesn't overwhelm us. Ridley Scott decided to gloss over the heavy stuff, but Mark did spend two sols doing nothing before decided he "wasn't going to die here" and then getting to work. Once a scientist gets to work, there's nothing much that can stop us. I was a pretty poor scientist in the end (left the field entirely) but even power outages in the lab didn't stop me!

I DIED at the poor nerds at JPL going at the impossible timeline they were given. The guy writing "NO" on his notebook killed me. And the cardboard replica of the lander? Gold! And there IS a stigma against botany, that it's not a real science. (Well, at least in terms of the hard sciences!)

What surprised me is that Ridley Scott gets right in on the action, so you don't actually feel that much of the crew camaraderie before the s*** hits the fan. But as the movie went along, the continued concern of the crew was clear and you do start rooting for them too.

What was also hilarious is that I could totally tell that the older Chinese scientist was actually not from the mainland because of his heavy accent in Mandarin. IMDB says he's from Hong Kong, so he probably spoke Cantonese natively. Just something random that took me out of the movie a tiny bit, but HEY it wasn't gobbleygook. LOVED the shot of the Chinese astronaut at the end with the next Mars crew. It's awesome that the event brought the two countries together.

Loved, loved, LOVED that the entire movie is basically people working together with their own agendas toward a single goal. That's what science is about, folks.

 

[Gort Baringa]

I went to see The Martian yesterday and I really enjoyed it . . . but I almost couldn't be bothered dragging my carcass off to the cinema rather than wait for the DVD or Blu Ray EXTENDED release which will follow!

Scott films almost always have an extended version when they get to dvd and his Kingdom of Heaven extended version is almost an entirely new and fresh experience! The dvd of Robin Hood that was available has an extra twenty minutes of extended material - so why wouldn't I at least consider waiting?

Now I wish that Peter Jackson will bring out his condensed one disk version of The Hobbit as Tolkien intended this story to be! There is so much that could be edited OUT of the three film mess that was made, including all of the female characters and their added story-lines that were never in his book. Jackson, hopefully will consider this.

 

[sueb1863]

PJ probably thinks the Hobbit films are fine as they are, but I'm pretty sure a fan edit will be coming along eventually.

 

[Flint Marko]

I'm probably alone in saying this, but I was very disappointed. I'll expound on this later when I'm not as tired.

 

[Marvolo]

I went to see The Martian yesterday and I really enjoyed it . . . but I almost couldn't be bothered dragging my carcass off to the cinema rather than wait for the DVD or Blu Ray EXTENDED release which will follow!

Scott films almost always have an extended version when they get to dvd and his Kingdom of Heaven extended version is almost an entirely new and fresh experience! The dvd of Robin Hood that was available has an extra twenty minutes of extended material - so why wouldn't I at least consider waiting?

Now I wish that Peter Jackson will bring out his condensed one disk version of The Hobbit as Tolkien intended this story to be! There is so much that could be edited OUT of the three film mess that was made, including all of the female characters and their added story-lines that were never in his book. Jackson, hopefully will consider this.

Yeah cause girl cooties.

 

[AnneFan]

Saw this today. Very good - Damon delivers the goods again.

8/10.

 

[NotSoLongAgo]

I loved that it felt like a really small film. Nothing felt very larger than life which was cool. It did feel like it dragged a bit but nothing too bad because the whole movie is really enjoyable. Lots of humor and heart in this one. Oddly enough, Fox did Reed Richards better in this movie by accident than in FFINO. And the music was fantastic! Goddard and Scott need to keep teaming up.
9/10

 

[Kane52630]

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/showdowns/chart/?id=martiangravity.htm

 

[kvz5]

Saw this again this time on 3D. Still love it! Theater is packer again.

 

[Flint Marko]

I'm probably going to be alone in this, but I had some problems with the characterization. Why should I care about Mark Whatney? I get that it's Matt Damon, who has a charming presence, playing a stranded astronaut. That's a solid premise, but that alone isn't enough reason for me to care about him as a character. Who is he? What's his life like on earth? Outside of the "assumed empathy", why should I want him to return? All I know about him is that he is good at what he does, and his parents are alive.
The rest of the characters weren't much better. I couldn't tell you a single thing about the numerous generic scientists whose entire role was to spout exposition at each other. I thought some of the astronauts on board the ship (Michael Pena, Jessica Chastain) were better developed, but I still left that movie going, "I just watched a bunch of strangers figure out a problem". It was a very interesting problem, no doubt, and watching them figure it out was certainly well-crafted, but I didn't care about anyone involved.
Again, I know I'm probably alone on this, but I was pretty disappointed.

 

[PЯOVOSҬ]

Going to see this in the coming week - hoping it meets up to the reviews and hype.

 

[TheVileOne]

Seemed like in the trailers Watney also had a wife and child that were cut, unless that was some trickery.

 

[Micromind]

I'm probably going to be alone in this, but I had some problems with the characterization. Why should I care about Mark Whatney? I get that it's Matt Damon, who has a charming presence, playing a stranded astronaut. That's a solid premise, but that alone isn't enough reason for me to care about him as a character. Who is he? What's his life like on earth? Outside of the "assumed empathy", why should I want him to return? All I know about him is that he is good at what he does, and his parents are alive.
The rest of the characters weren't much better. I couldn't tell you a single thing about the numerous generic scientists whose entire role was to spout exposition at each other. I thought some of the astronauts on board the ship (Michael Pena, Jessica Chastain) were better developed, but I still left that movie going, "I just watched a bunch of strangers figure out a problem". It was a very interesting problem, no doubt, and watching them figure it out was certainly well-crafted, but I didn't care about anyone involved.
Again, I know I'm probably alone on this, but I was pretty disappointed.

Well, I thought Kate Mara's character was just there, she barely had screen-time, and yes, Mark Whitney is supposed to be everyman, a Botanist who is not that well respected by the rest of the crew, underdog if you will...apart from that his character was two dimensional.

Funny that some people (Critics) who complained about Matthew Mc Conaughey (Cooper) as an example of two dimensional card-board character in Interstellar are now perfectly fine with Matt Damon's portrayal here.

 

[Napoleon]

Seemed like in the trailers Watney also had a wife and child that were cut, unless that was some trickery.

Nah pretty sure they were Pena's.

 

[Flint Marko]

Well, I thought Kate Mara's character was just there, she barely had screen-time, and yes, Mark Whitney is supposed to be everyman, a Botanist who is not that well respected by the rest of the crew, underdog if you will...apart from that his character was two dimensional.

Funny that some people (Critics) who complained about Matthew Mc Conaughey (Cooper) as an example of two dimensional card-board character in Interstellar are now perfectly fine with Matt Damon's portrayal here.

I understood the surface-level stuff they were trying to get across, but there was so little else for me to grasp onto that it pretty much detached me from the movie entirely. I'll admit to crossing my arms and sort of checking out about halfway through once it became clear that I wasn't going to get what I wanted out of the film. I really don't think I was asking for much.
And for what it's worth, I find Cooper to be infinitely more compelling in Interstellar, a film I think is largely more successful. I'd love to hear what those critics would have to say to that comparison.

 

[Anita18]

So I'm glad I decided against going to the JPL open house this year, which is today. Some of my friends tried to go, and it apparently reached capacity at 9:30AM.

I will live vicariously through the Fb pics of one friend who managed to get in.

 

[Micromind]

I understood the surface-level stuff they were trying to get across, but there was so little else for me to grasp onto that it pretty much detached me from the movie entirely. I'll admit to crossing my arms and sort of checking out about halfway through once it became clear that I wasn't going to get what I wanted out of the film. I really don't think I was asking for much.
And for what it's worth, I find Cooper to be infinitely more compelling in Interstellar, a film I think is largely more successful. I'd love to hear what those critics would have to say to that comparison.

Agreed, though I enjoyed The Martian (I also purchased the book and will soon read it just to compare the movie version with the book), it was not Ridley Scott's best movie (as some are saying), as you pointed out, the main characters lacked character development..

I would place Interstellar a bit higher than this movie.

 

[Micromind]

You can deduce the solution of how to resolve the problem of rescuing Matt Damon from Mars just after first hour of the movie !

 

[Silvermoth]

Just got back from this. It's absolutely wonderful. Believe the hype. Jess chastain can simply do no wrong. She must love these space movies.

What a great cast too. I would love to see a one shot actually with matt Damon doing a psych evaluation once

Spoiler

he got back. It would be fasinating to know what happens to a guy when he goes from being alone on a planet for four years to suddenly being surrounded by people all the time.

 

[psylockolussus]

I love this movie! I hope they make more movies like this one. I would be excited if they make another movie like this and the setting is in Venus or Luna.