A Space movie, not an adaptation of the book

Rating: 4/10 (4 October 2015)

I read the book, "The Martian" by Andy Weir and so hoped the movie would be good or at least interesting. The scenery in the movie was great, and the film covered the large concepts of the book. But overall it was lacking. The movie overlooked large segments of the book, especially some of the more emotional pieces, like the conversation between Johnson and her father right before the resupply is sent up. The chemical resin, that saved Mark's life countless times in the book, was absent. Scenes where Mark has to struggle to survive and does some daring escapes were left out of the film. Also, he doesn't walk right out of the airlock, he has to find a way to get the airlock to the Hab.
The humor was also lacking, the Watney character was much funnier in the book.
The book contained science, math calculations, fully explained concepts and ideas. The book explained how to create the ideal conditions to grow potatoes. There was a lengthy process of preparing the soil in the book - the movie just showed him planting potatoes. Frankly, the movie was a dumbed down version of the book.
Then there is that annoying 'artistic freedom' that directors use. In this case they kept communication between Watney and NASA open and functioning normally. They added a Iron Man like scene in the end and they made the secret meetings between the higher ups - not secret. The emotion the crew feels as they extend their journey is absent, partly because the film doesn't show any issues with Hermes malfunctioning on its extended journey.
For a movie about space it's not bad, but for an adaptation of the book, it's lacking.