The Martian

Year: 2015
Running time: 144 minutes
Certificate: 12
Language: English
Screenplay: Drew Goddard
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Peña, Sean Bean, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Mackenzie Davis, Donald Glover

All alone.

When the book The Martian was released in 2011, written by Andy Weir, it made a big splash. Weir's grasp of astronomy, orbital mechanics and human spaceflight made for an enjoyable, sometimes riveting story as the world united in an attempt to rescue and bring home Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon in the film), stranded alone on Mars after a dust-storm-related accident. What made it interesting was seeing how Watney used his knowledge and grasp of science to survive, and the same focus on science and smarts to solve pressing problems is true for Artemis, Weir's 2017 follow up set on the moon. I'm a sucker for competence, so I enjoyed them a lot. They were, however, a little derivative, with both stories applying new dressing to several well-worn story tropes.

It didn't take long for the rights to The Martian to be sold and adapted into a movie screenplay. We know this type of story can be hugely popular - see Apollo 13, and Matt Damon can be as much of a draw in a lead role as Tom Hanks, so it seems the success of The Martian was likely secured. Whether it would be any good, was another matter, but Ridley Scott is nothing if not a safe pair of hands, and he succeeded in making the science exciting and a planet that is little more than red rock look absolutely stunning.

Mark's crewmates discover that he's still alive on the way home, as well as details of an extremely risky move that might allow them to swing back round to Mars and pick Mark up, putting them all in jeopardy. But of course, they do it - all for one, right? So while his crew are coming back for him, Mark has to make his way across Mars to the landing site of the next expedition and work out how to rendezvous with his crew-mates. And all the way it's very clever people using their smarts to help and it's science and maths solving problems for a good cause and cheesy as it may be, I am all for it. It's not easy to carry a movie mostly by yourself and while there are quite a few characters in significant supporting roles, it's mostly Damon by himself, and like Bruce Willis in Die Hard and the aforementioned Tom Hanks in Cast Away, he acquits himself well here.

Home sweet home away from home.

It's one of those stories that can make you feel positive about what our species can actually achieve if working together for a common cause and the joy is in seeing just how these seemingly impossible problems can be overcome using science, ingenuity and teamwork. It's just fun and a little bit of a tonic in these times of hate and division. And it was a hoot seeing Sean Bean take part in another Council of Elrond.

It's not something that's going to set the world alight, but it is an injection of hope that can go some way to lightening dark times.

Score: 7/10

Most, if not all, reviews tend to be quite positive - this one from Peter at Rolling Stone was very impressed, but this one from Aaron at The Hollywood Outsider was much less so.