The Martian

Few actors are capable of carrying a film on their own. Actors such as Tom Hanks, Ryan Reynolds, James Franco and Tom Hardy have all done this to varying levels of success. Now Matt Damon has joined the ranks of actors who have done it successfully. The Martian is a 2015 sci-fi film directed by Ridley Scott, starring Matt Damon, Sean Bean and Jessica Chastain.

When astronauts blast off from the planet Mars, they leave behind Mark Watney (Matt Damon), presumed dead after a fierce storm. With only a meagre amount of supplies, the stranded visitor must utilize his wits and spirit to find a way to survive on the hostile planet. Meanwhile, back on Earth, members of NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring him home, while his crew mates hatch their own plan for a daring rescue mission.

While Damon is not the only Actor in the film (there are many) the vast majority of the film and almost all of his scenes are him all by himself, stranded on Mars fighting for his life. The other actors all give solid performances but Damon’s performance as Mark Watney is superb. There is never a moment in the film where I grew bored of him. Damon gave an entertaining performance full of sarcasm, jokes, charisma, insanity, desperation and hope when there should have been none.

The film looks magnificent. The Mars scenes were all filmed in the Middle Eastern desert of Wadi Rum, Jordan. You believe completely that they are actually on a different planet. The landscape is beautiful, yet harsh and unforgiving.

The film prides itself on how scientifically accurate and plausible it actually is, with several professionals in various areas all giving advice on how to make the film more realistic. Many people would call into question things such as Watney’s food intake being sufficient, him growing food on Mars’ soil and the amount of time he spent on Mars given the supplies he had available. However all of the conditions and scenes in the film are technically possible. With the most unrealistic thing being the storm that forced the other members of Watney’s crew to abandon him.

The film is very faithful to the book it was adapted from, lifting several lines straight from the book. The film benefits greatly from this as Watney’s dialogue in particular is simply amazing, particularly when he’s doing vlogs, and you can see how he’s trying to remain optimistic and upbeat about his situation “Hell yeah! I’m a botanist. Fear my botany powers!”

Overall this is a film that I highly recommend to anybody. It has elements of comedy to lighten the depressing situation that Watney is in. the writing and acting is solid and the story is great. Definitely watch this film.

Score: 8.5/10