The Martian

Rating: 6/10 (24 October 2015)

From BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated director Sir Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Prometheus), this cleverly titled space film I debated seeing at first, having average reviews, but I went for it. Basically a temporary artificial habitat called The Hub has been established on the planet Mars by the crew of the manned mission Ares III, they are to stay for 2 months and return to Earth in their orbital probe. However, 6 days into the mission the base is hit by a massive Martian storm and they are forced to abandon and launch themselves, to avoid the escape vehicle collapsing and leaving them stranded. While evacuating, astronaut Mark Watney (Golden Globe winning, and Oscar and BAFTA nominated Matt Damon) is hit by a large piece of debris and disappears into the rushing planet dust, he is presumed dead as his biomonitor is damaged, mission commander Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain) and the rest of the crew with their lives at stake are forced to leave Mars. Watney has in fact survived the storm and makes it back to the Hab, but he is unable to contact NASA, he calculates that he has 300 days of food, uses his knowledge as a botanist to make a makeshift farm in the central room of the habitat, and anticipates needing to survive at least three years before a return mission to the planet takes place. Mark makes video logs to keep up morale and plans to journey to the landing site of Ares IV, he modifies the rover for capability to travel long journeys. Satellite photos of Mars are received at NASA, engineers Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Mindy Park (Mackenzie Davis) realise Mark is alive, they immediately attempt to establish contact, against the decisions of the Hermes spacecraft flight director Mitch Henderson (Sean Bean), NASA director Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels) orders that the crew of Ares III, currently travelling back to Earth, are not told. Back on the surface of Mars, Mark finds defunct probe the Pathfinder, he uses it to regain contact with Earth, using the probe camera and signs for a letter coding system, later on Mark establishes real-time text messaging from NASA in the modified rover. As Mark continues to grow his crops, a plan is formulated by crew supervisor Mitch Henderson and JPL director Bruce Ng (Sunshine's Benedict Wong) to send a space probe to Mars to resupply Mark to last up to four years until Ares IV can reach him, Sanders speaks to the press about the discovery of Mark living on the planet, and he authorises Henderson to send a video message to the crew to tell that Watney is alive. But probe inspections are skipped and it explodes during launch, Mark meanwhile suffers his own disaster as the airlock on the habitat malfunctions, it explosively decompresses, his crops are killed, his projected food supply is reduced and he resorts to strict rationing. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) offer NASA a lifeline, a classified booster can carry a payload, this can be sent to Mars to resupply Mark, or resupply the Hermes so that the Ares III can return to the planet and rescue Mark, Lewis and her crew agree to force Sanders to go ahead with the second option, by setting their craft into a gravitational slingshot back to Mars, the resupply mission is successful and the crew begin the return journey. Seven months later, Mark has driven all key life support systems to the Ares IV mission base, he strips down the Area IV launch vehicle (placed on Mars in advance) to save weight, following instructions from Kapoor, his spacesuit will be used to protect against the vacuum of space. The Hermes reach and orbit Mars, the Ares IV is launched remotely, but Mark's vehicle fails to achieve the altitude needed to be intercepted, an explosive device rupturing an airlock to release the ship's atmosphere and generate thrust is improvised to slow the Hermes down without wasting fuel, still too far away Mark makes the drastic decision to pierce his suit hand and use the suit's pressure to come close enough for Lewis to catch him. In the end Mark returns to Earth to begin "day one" of his new life as a NASA safety instructor for new candidates to the astronaut training program, and the crew members watch the news of the successful launch of Ares V. Also starring Kristen Wiig as Annie Montrose, Michael Peña as Rick Martinez, 127 Hours' Kate Mara as Beth Johanssen, Sebastian Stan as Chris Beck, Aksel Hennie as Alex Vogel and Donald Glover as Rich Purnell. Damon as the man trapped on the red planet is a great amiable character, making wisecracks to himself along the way, you definitely want him to be rescued, and there is great support from Chastain, Daniels and Ejifor. If you were to describe this, you could plonk together Cast Away and Apollo 13, but there is a film titled Robinson Crusoe on Mars you could mention as well. What is really good about this film is the choice of music throughout, the lead character is forced to listen to disco tunes, and the choices of songs used are inspired, including "Hot Stuff" - Donna Summer, "Waterloo" - ABBA, "Starman" - David Bowie, and the genius choice is "I Will Survive" - Gloria Gaynor. The first half of the film is really effective with the man, the "martian" of the title (no aliens are ever seen), desperate to survive working for his needs, the middle trails a little with scientific gibberish, but it picks by the last half an hour with the crucial rescue, overall it is a worthwhile science-fiction drama. It was nominated the Oscars for Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects and Best Production Design, and it was nominated the BAFTAs for Best Editing, Best Production Design, Best Sound and Best Special Visual Effects. Good!