No question, the obvious other comparison for this film is Ron Howard's "Apollo 13" (1995).
Sunday, October 04, 2015
"The Martian": Matt Damon gives us a guided tour of the Red Planet, and overcomes all obstacles in screenwriting-101 fashion
Going to see Ridley Scott’s “The Martian” (written by Drew
Goddard from the book by Andy Weir), in 3-D on a large format screen is almost
certainly the best chance any one of us has to experience “visiting” Mars, even
vicariously. So here we have another big exotic travel experience movie.
There’s a scene 40 minutes before the end (141 minutes)
where Mark Watney drives his “Avis” rover (stopping every few hours for tedious
recharging of the array of solar batteries) through stunning canyons, for miles
under a pink sky. That’s what most of
Mars looks like, even much of this sequence was filmed in Jordan (Wadi Run).
And the final sequences, where Mark is brought back on to
the main crew’s returning ship, even outdoes comparable sequences in “Gravity”
(Oct. 4, 2013) with the space lasso sequence.
And there are some stunning shots of the entire Mars surfce
from space vehicles.
And we get to see a little of Beijing (smog-filled) when
China joins the effort to save Mark.
The film’s obvious rooting interest follows the most common
screenwriting clichés, but here they work, keeping you glued to the final
rescue. This film works better than, say, “Castaway” (2000), because the
loneliness is punctuated all the time.
The international and internal NASA politics gets a little
silly and obvious at times. But the crew
really had good reason to believe Mark dead, and really have to sacrifice
nineteen more months to go back to get him after other failures.
I loved the little potato garden, although it seemed to
provide a diet a bit to starchy (maybe vegan). Yes, he has colonized the
planet, and, yes, he has walked valleys on the planet alone where no one had
ever been (although we don’t know for sure about that). Really, is any one human good enough to figure
all this out and survive it?
Damon looks unbelievably robust in the beginning after the
stranding and self-surgery (even having lived at Mars gravity), but loses
weight, grows his beard and gets grizzled as the ordeal continues.
The official site is here (20th Century Fox).
I saw this film before a very full audience at AMC Tyson’s
ETX.
No question, the obvious other comparison for this film is Ron Howard's "Apollo 13" (1995).
No question, the obvious other comparison for this film is Ron Howard's "Apollo 13" (1995).
Wikipedia attribution link for NASA Viking 1 picture of Mars
surface showing atmosphere (p.d.)
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