Name: The Martian (2015)
IMDb: link to IMDb
Genres: SciFi Country of Origin: USA. Locations: Jordan, Hungary, USA.
Cast: Matt Damon as Mark Watney (astronaut, botanist), Jeff Daniels as Teddy Sanders (head of NASA), Jessica Chastain as Melissa Lewis (Ares 3 crew commander), Michael Pena as Rick Martinez (Ares 3 pilot), Sean Bean as Mitch Henderson (Ares 3 crew advocate), Kate Mara as Johanssen (Ares 3 crew), Aksel Hennie as Vogel (Ares 3 crew, from Germany), Sebastian Stan as Chris Beck (Ares 3 crew), Chiwetel Ejiofor as Vincent Kapoor (Ares program director), Benedict Wong as chief JPL probe builder Bruce Ng, Mackenzie Davis as Mindy Park (keeps track of fine details on Mars), Donald Glover as Rich Purnell.
Directed by: Ridley Scott. Written by: Drew Goddard (screenplay) and Andy Weir (book).
The Three Acts:
The initial tableaux: The Ares 3 mission is on Mars. Its six astronauts are all busy when a major windstorm comes up. The crew has to bug out, and Mark appears to be lost in the windstorm. After the rest of the crew have departed, Mark revives. He finds the resources he needs for immediate survival, takes inventory, then engineers a way to make more food and water. On Earth, Mark's funeral was done with all the official flourishes.
Delineation of conflicts: Mindy is tasked with looking at the deserted landing site of the Ares 3 mission. She notices that Mark is likely alive, and drives the point home. Mark works toward establishing communications; Mark and NASA complete making their back and forth workable.
That accomplishment just makes the technical problems and the need for political decisions come faster. Mark is short on time, NASA has to generate options, and it all has to be funded. Teddy is continually walking a political tightrope, Vincent wants the best for the Ares program, Mitch wants the best for the crew that is currently in space. Bad luck shows up in devastating form, both on Mars and on the Earth. Everything has to be re-assessed and new plans have to be made.
Resolution: Will Mark be rescued?
One line summary: One of the best science fiction movies ever made.
Statistics:
a. Cinematography: 10/10 Wonderful job for closeups, groups of people, shots of the Hermes, backdrops of the surface of Mars, mission control settings and the like.
b. Sound: 7/10 Lewis did indeed have horrible taste in music, and it was played too loud.
c. Acting: 9/10 Matt Damon did a fabulous job as the lead. His depictions of dealing with an ongoing stream of difficulties and bad luck were excellent. His wry comments made me laugh in empathy. Michael Pena, Sean Bean, and Jeff Daniels did fine jobs. The vignette between Mindy and Vincent was good comic relief. I liked Mackenzie Davis quite a bit as the one who noticed Mark was alive, then kept track of him until communications were established. Benedict Wong and Donald Glover were marvelous in smaller parts.
d. Screenplay: 10/10 Excellent, considered in its own right. I'm not comparing it to the book. I liked the level of detail: enough to show that a huge helping of ingenuity was required, but not so much that I felt deluged. Along the same lines, huge chunks of time had to be dropped to fit the time of the movie down to 144 minutes, but to still show significant processes that had to be engineered, then performed. The montage of final scenes was nicely constructed.
Final rating: 5/5
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