Pretty well done

Rating: Null/10 (30 January 2016)

Contrary to what you might be thinking, the idea behind "The Martian" is not as original as you might believe. Way back in 1964, the movie "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" did the basic idea first. Of course, in the more than fifty years that have passed since that movie was made, special effects have improved greatly and we now know a lot more about Mars - which results in "The Martian" being pretty convincing in what it portrays (though I'm not sure if astronauts could hear sound in Mars' atmosphere.) The movie takes its time in showing the details of what one would have to face stranded on Mars, and while this does result in a very long movie (140 minutes in length), the movie is never boring or tedious, even with some predictable touches thrown in now and then.
The movie is certainly not perfect. Besides those predictable touches, there are some flaws with the writing of the title character. We only get to know him for a few minutes before he finds himself stranded on Mars, so it's hard to see how this new challenge changes this character. Also, he seems to take his predicament much better than you might think. The other flaw with the movie is with the climax. I won't reveal what happens, except it's somewhat hard to swallow everything that occurs. Don't get me wrong, the movie is still enjoyable despite these flaws. It's just not perfect - though when you think about it, very few movies are.