Ridley Scott’s latest: The Martian stars Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges, Jessica Chastain & Chiwetel Ejiofor is by far, the best Ridley Scott movie since Alien, as well as the best Matt Damon movie of his career.

Although the entire movie is fictional, it does not at all feel like it is. This movie is so close to (future) home (since water was found on Mars just days ago, and a manned mission is expected in the next decade or so), that it felt like a gritty biopic from the future about the greatest survivor man ever.

The Plot:

Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is forced to survive for himself on Mars after the mission he was apart of, is attacked by a storm, which results in him getting knocked unconscious & stabbed and his crew mates abandoning the planet, assuming he’d been killed. With 4 years until the next planned manned mission to Mars, Watney has to figure out a way to survive and communicate with NASA until they can rescue him.

The Martian Review:

Matt Damon gives the performance of his career as NASA botanist/sole survivor of Mars Mark Watney and Ridley Scott has yet again given us another cinematic treasure. This movie couldn’t have felt less like fiction as it plays out from 3 perspectives: Watney on Mars, the crew mates aboard the Hermes, and the entire NASA division on Earth. The Martian feels like a biographical picture of an Astronaut that will be born in the next decade, studied botany in hopes of becoming an astronaut, traveling to another planet and regretting it immediately. That’s how real this movie felt. The cinematography was amazing, having the shots that looked like Mars filmed in Jordan, Budapest & Hungary. After watching the incredible film, it didn’t cross my mind once that the locations didn’t mimic what Mars could look like. It was perfect.

Not to mention Damon gave a diverse and compelling performance as Mark Watney, from being devastated to adventurous, intelligent, depressed, hopeful and finally overjoyed. Not many actors could add humour into that whole mix.

As for the rest of the cast, (Watney’s fellow crew mates) Jessica Chastain, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Aksel Hennie & Sebastian Stan all played convincing and supporting roles. As for the Earth bound, the real stars were Donald Glover, Jeff Daniels, Benedict Wong, Sean Bean & Chiwetel Ejiofor were all (in their own way) a part of NASA, attempting to rescue Mark Watney. It was a well rounded cast where most were substantial or they weren’t important at all. It seemed to me the only main character that didn’t stand out or resonate with myself was Kristen Wiig’s, it seemed she was under-utilized in a role that seemed meaningless. I wasn’t sure how she was connected to NASA or what part she actually had in it, but I think they could have developed her character more.

All together The Martian is a winner in my books. One of the best movies I’ve seen in 2015, and this definitely redeems Ridley Scott from (the not-terrible, just very miscast) Exodus: Gods and Kings.

What did you think of The Martian? What did you think of my review?

Comment below and let us know!

10/2/2015 – 2:20 am

by James

“I’ll just wait here guys”