Filmmaker Ridley Scott seems to send people into Space more often than even NASA. In this his latest, and most thrilling blockbuster, he has a manned space shuttle land on Mars for a couple of weeks of research but then when the crew have to suddenly evacuate in a hurry, they manage to leave one of the astronauts behind. In the rush to get on board their craft, Mark Watney gets hit by flying debris and is assumed to have been killed so the Captain reluctantly gives orders to take off and head back home. Turns out that he was knocked unconscious and when the fierce weather disappears he wakes up to find himself with a piece of debris impaled into his stomach and totally alone on the entire planet.After a bit of self-surgery and with the bleeding stopped, Watney has time to stop and take stock of his situation. It’s a 4 year journey home to Earth so even if anyone at NASA headquarters back in Houston even remotely thought that he may have survived it would be years away before he could be rescued. With only enough rations to last for 400 sols (Martian days) he realizes that unless he learns how to make more food pretty quick, then he will be dead years before they could even arrive. Watney is actually a Botanist and his role in the Mission had been to try and establish if plants could grow on Mars without either water or fertilizer. Now he reluctantly realizes he has no choice but to make it work if he is to have any chance to survive.
On this vast barren landscape of the planet’s unforgiven terrain, Scott makes this movie as much about the lone astronaut dealing with his own small space and his motivation and sheer cunning to stay alive as he talks through all his possibilities. We anxiously watch each small step that Watney takes to figure out how grow enough food using Space Station in ways it had never been intended for. Despite the fact that he can re-configure his sophisticated living quarters into becoming his indoor farm, he still lacks any means whatsoever to make any sort of contact with Earth.
Watney shares this all with us as he records his daily video diary and despite the mounting challenges (their is an explosion and the precious potato crop is ruined) he maintains a wicked sense of humor bitching about being driven mad by the Captain’s collection of disco music that she had left behind.
When a bright spark in Houston spots some movement in the satellite pictures of Mars that she monitors, they eventually realize that Watney is alive and surviving. Now the movie moves on to a different plane with the hierarchy at NASA arguing over the logic and feasibility of sending a rescue mission to bring Watney back, and the moral dilemma of keeping news that he is in fact alive from his colleagues who are still hurtling back to Earth in their space shuttle.
With the best minds in the world now trying to figure out how to help Watney after all most two years have past, he is know no longer alone. Just a very long way away. Even though we always suspect that the good guys will get their way and Watney will be rescued, Scott ensures that none of that will happen without more than a few nail biting moments. Up until now most of the action had taken place firmly on the ground, albeit most of it a rocky red one, but now as it climaxes Watney and the rescuers are orbiting around Mars more than a little precariously, giving the story a sensationally dramatic ending.Scott packs the space shuttle and Houston headquarters with a very starry cast that includes Jessica Chastain, Michael Peña, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Kate Mara, Donald Glover and as seemingly obligatory in every American blockbuster these days a couple of Brit stars too i.e. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Sean Bean. It is however very much Matt Damon’s movie and he seems an even better fit here as an astronaut here then he did in his trip to space last year in Christopher Nolan’s superb ‘Interstellar’. Damon is always best when he plays a ‘goodie’ especially when he can imbue his pitch-perfect performance with such a youthful mischievousness that actually makes you forget that he is in fact middle-aged. They are few actors of his generation that could really fill the screen on their own for the best part of two hours in such a wonderfully compelling manner.
Is it too early to say if ‘The Martian’ will become as popular Scott’s ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘Alien’? We think there is a very good chance, but only time will tell.P.S. If you have the option , then see it in 3D!
