The Martian Movie Review

“Yay! Space science fiction again FTW!”

I was excited for Gravity. I was ready to jump off a cliff for Interstellar. Strangely for The Martian, even though I looked forward to it, I wasn’t as excited as I should have been, considering my love for science fiction and space adventure. Was it because of the simple Premise?

Will he or won’t he? (Make it back to the Earth) That was it. That was it about the movie. That much was definitely made clear from the trailer. So, a Cast Away on Mars? Meh.

But let me tell you this much with certainty, when I walked out of the theatre I knew that this was arguably the best space adventure movie. This movie is a testament to what great writing in terms of the screenplay could do to any film (You! Young aspiring film-makers out there- don’t miss this one for this specific reason folks. Screenplay is everything!). You can be on mars, you can be on earth, you can be in a different galaxy, you can be on Everest, you can be on a sinking ship in the Atlantic, you can be racing around in cars, or you can be in a haunted house, but all that matters at the end of the day is the writing and execution. And The Martian truly, truly shows how it’s done in spite of a paper thin premise.

The movie is about a guy who is all alone on a planet fighting for his survival. Has to be depressing right? No! It isn’t depressing at all. It is absolutely a fun ride! There’s a lot of humor. There’s a lot of tension. I was literally on the edge of my seat for quite a few moments, because they were so gripping. Even at 144 minutes, the movie just kept up its brisk pace all through. The screen time shifted wonderfully well, from Mark on Mars, to NASA back here, to his crew members aboard Hermes making their journey back to earth. I will say this again, I have rarely been this impressed with a Screenplay of a film. Delightfully tight!

Ridley Scott the director, man behind films like Alien, Gladiator and Black hawk down, executed this movie phenomenally well. There is so much ‘science’ in this movie (not the Interstellarish science, not to worry!) and it is made sure they are all explained extremely well and the movie definitely does not make the audience feel dumb (Trust me that’s a lot of effort :P ). The movie has amazing cinematography. Earth felt like Earth. Mars felt like Mars, I mean, based on all the pics that I ever saw of Mars, that’s always how I imagined it would be and that’s how it is. Red, desolated, dusty with rocky terrain.

The casting of the film! Phew! Great actors all of them. So obviously, they delivered liked they always do and Matt Damon does what Matt Damon does. Knocks you out with his performance. I am a sucker for performance driven movies. This movie has plenty of that. In fact I am a sucker for thrillers and comedy too and this movie ticks those boxes too.

The Martian is one of the best that I watched this year. This film was not just about the exquisite art in terms of the acting, direction or writing, it was about what a film offers to the audience, and this film has that to its credit. It has got everything to offer. The movie was thoroughly enjoyable. And I would probably end up watching this movie, at least, two more times with my friends. And hence, the rating:

Rating: 450/150. Simply Spectacular!

Do check out the trailer for this film, if you haven’t: