Pretty good movie, a few flaws

Rating: 8/10 (31 October 2015)

Who doesn't want to go see a space movie at the cinema, am I right?
Matt Damon was a great fit in the lead role. He suitably captured the wit, optimism and (sometimes) frustration of Mark Watney. Very strong acting there. I liked Chiwetel Ejiofor as well, his character was likable and did a pretty good job. Kristen Wiig was good too, always nice to see her. I can understand some comments remarking that she was an odd choice for this movie, but I thought she was solid.
The story is interesting. How would someone actually be able to survive if stranded on Mars? Well, Watney shows us. Now, to actually be this lucky is damn near impossible, but his solutions seemed realistic enough for this kind of movie. It worked. We were also offered a good look into how the people at NASA (and outside of NASA too actually) try to figure out how to get Watney home once they find out he's still alive. Oh this is not a spoiler, don't worry. The trailer almost gave away the whole f'ucking thing.
There is enough scientific jargon and calculations to please anyone who's a fan of space movies, so there is fun to be had there.
Some of the humor was funny. I laughed a couple times at some of Watney's lines and behavior, and Rich Purnell was an entertaining guy too "I'm gonna need more coffee...!"
All right, let's get into a couple qualms I had. Not ALL of the humor worked. Some jokes were repeated more than once, only really laugh-out-loud the first time. Some of the other jokes also felt pretty out-of-place (someone naming a plan after, uuhh... Lord Of The Rings). The music wasn't the best either. I don't like when a whole bunch of pop songs is used in place of a score, which occurred several times. The PG-13 rating made for some kinda jarring censorship too, I would have liked if Watney could swear more freely. And finally, maybe one or two actors were kinda "eh" in their roles.
Those are my only significant complaints though, I had a good time with this movie. Don't expect the next 2001 and I think you will like it too.