"I'm the first person to be alone on an entire planet"

Rating: 7/10 (26 October 2015)

I'd heard nothing but great things about this film beforehand. After seeing it, my verdict is "Good, but far from great." It certainly keeps your attention, and is an interesting mix of science fiction, survival tale, thriller-diller, and political intrigue. What it shows about NASA's dilemmas in how/when they tell the public what is happening, how they assess the respective risks in their various options, and so forth is pretty convincing. Still, I have to wonder if NASA would really go to all this expense and trouble in trying to save one person whose odds of survival are stacked this high against him.
A few other random points:
*Some breath-taking Martian and outer space scenery. I would have liked more in this department, particularly on Mars-in-general, but I suppose that one of the film's strengths is that it doesn't try too hard to bedazzle us. The primary mission here is to show one fellow's fight to survive in a distant and hostile environment.
*Some real surprises and turnabouts which, particularly toward the end, descend into yeah-right unlikelihoods and too-easies. Many people, it seems, would rather have big stretches and reaches than boring predictabilities, and the whole story is, of course, pretty unlikely, though not impossible. Nevertheless, the makers of this film could have tried a little harder in several key places.
*Though I've never been a huge Matt Damon fan, those who are should enjoy his performance as marooned exobotanist Mark Watney. Jessica Chastain, Sean Bean, and a couple of others steal the show insofar as acting goes: It's just unfortunate that we don't see more of them. Much of the dialogue, particularly Watney's—"In your FACE, Neil Armstrong!" etc--is rather hokey and not quite as clever as intended.
*While I'm a novice in these areas, some of the science and technology here is obviously implausible, and I would guess that most rocket scientists and physicists would find it downright ludicrous in a number of spots.
*Last but certainly not least, the zero-g scenes are a lot of fun. Trying to leave the stadium-style theater at the end, I was so marvelously disoriented that I walked UP toward the camera portal instead of DOWN toward the exit. (Yes, I mean this in a good way.)