Robinson Crusoe on Mars

Rating: 8/10 (6 October 2015)

This is a sci-fi movie set in the near future. The Aries III Mars mission goes wrong, and an astronaut is stuck on Mars alone for years. The movie tells the story of his survival and rescue.
Despite its space theme, it's an old-fashioned, American kind of movie, with the emphasis on heroism, self-reliance and knowhow. It's a big epic that presents in full glory what a Mars mission might be like. This movie is a paean to America's manned space missions, and will appeal enormously to those who believe in American's manifest destiny. Balanced against the heroism of the astronaut is the geekiness of the tech guys back at mission control. In some ways, this movie is really about them. A major theme of the movie is the straight-up belief in the virtue of science and technology.
Matt Damon is the competent, engaging, masculine heart of the movie. Because of the subject matter, he is in almost every scene. Fortunately he is still watchable as hell. He does a great job here, especially near the end. He's just a great actor.
I'd give this movie a 9, except for one point: it got slow for a bit. This movie is relentlessly realistic. It's almost like watching a documentary. Having said that, I was deeply moved at times.
Kudos to Scott, Damon et al. for making such a great movie.