Ridley Scotts' skill of making epic pictures is coming back

Rating: 8/10 (17 November 2015)

After Robert Zemeckis' «Contact» cinema goers haven't seen any sci- fi movie about optimistic sight of our universe and space theme. Even a new wave of realistic science fiction movies (Cuaron's «Gravity», Nolan's «Interstellar») focused on Tarkovsky's man-needs- man idea. Space means not the future of humanity, but loneliness, emptiness and things like that. But it's obviously a truism. And a new Ridley Scott's masterpiece «The Martian» is going to prove it.
In the very near future manned missions to Mars become as if every day routine. But one of these missions called Ares-3 fails with the sandstorm. Almost all astronauts make it to evacuate in time, but their crew member Mark Watney is presumed dead and left behind on the red planet. But Watney survives and finds himself alone. His task is to survive and find the way to contact the Earth until he'll starve and freeze to death.
After a row of mediocre works («Exodus: Gods and Kings», «The Counselor») it's okay to think that Ridley Scott has forgotten how to direct movies. But in «The Martian» it feels like it's made by the creator of «Alien» and «Blade Runner», and not by an old fart responsible for «Prometheus». Scott always finds a way to entertain the audience by lots of humor and he knows how to satisfy geeks hungry for the real scientific movies without pretentious philosophism.
But there is still a serious message in «The Martian». Mark Watney is the embodiment of a man of scientism and positivism. He tries to survive not just by sitting and hoping, or by believing in God, or by «the power of love». He builds a natural kitchen garden and grows potatoes for food, becomes a space pirate and the first colonizer of Mars and the one thing that bothers him is that he should do all this things during listening to disco music. Even in the moment when Watney thinks that there's no chance to abandon the planet, he doesn't whine about his existential loneliness, but admires the beautiful Mars' landscapes and says like: «Well, I tried the best I can but if it's not enough I should deal with it».
Sometimes Ridley Scott shows some problems with the rhythm of narrative. Especially close to the end where there are too many scenes about NASA and Watney's rescue crew and the protagonist is in the middle distance. «The Martian» could be more spectacular, but Scott is too focused on the story. The happy end can be also criticized, because it's too naive and idealistic, despite it really fits the movie and works for the idea. But every bean has its black. «The Martian» is the best entertainment of this year since George Miller's «Mad Max: Fury Road» and a new sci-fi classic of all time.