"Space Does Not Cooperate", but That Won't Stop "The Martian"

Rating: 10/10 (7 October 2015)

Beyond the spaceship duels and friendly/unfriendly human/alien encounters, outer space films like the "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" franchises (and even TV's "Futurama") draw their appeal from their confident assurance that someday humanity will not just "conquer" space, it will make it so comfortable and familiar that visiting a new planet will be as easy as taking a walk to the neighborhood grocery store. Perhaps, but that hope is at least decades away. Right now, even now, outer space is cold, dark, and above all, so vast that even visiting a relatively close planet like Mars takes an average of four years. And even when you get to Mars, it's barely more hospitable than the moon. "The Martian"'s (hereafter "Martian) protagonist, space botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is absolutely right when he states "Space Does Not Cooperate". This becomes a problem when he is stranded alone on Mars like an interplanetary "Robinson Crusoe" (somewhat reminiscent of the 1964 film).
Mark is part of the Ares III team also consisting of Commander Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain) and astronauts Rick Martinez (Michael Peña), Beth Johanssen (Kate Mara), Chris Beck (Sebastian Stan), and Alex Vogel (Aksel Hennie). While the Ares III team explores Mars, a blinding particle storm forces them to abort their mission and board their ship. The storm violently separates Mark from the rest of the crew who are forced to leave without him, believing Mark dead. The crew is so convinced he's dead that when they communicate that fact to NASA head Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels), he almost immediately arranges an honorary funeral for him.
Of course, rumors of Mark's death are premature. Buried in sand, losing oxygen, and suffering a puncture wound, Mark is nevertheless alive. He manages to struggle back to the still-standing planet base, replenish air, equalize pressure, and treat his wound as best he can. However, the obstacles to his survival are just piling up. Can Mark fight Martian weather, radiation, cold, starvation, dehydration, and boredom at least long enough to somehow contact NASA to let them know he's alive, and then stay alive even longer for NASA to mount a rescue mission? Again, given that a one-way Earth-to-Mars trip takes four years, that's a daunting challenge.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Teddy, NASA spokesperson Annie Montrose (Kristen Wiig), and NASA mission directors Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Mitch Henderson (Sean Bean) have their own challenges, both urgent and mundane. Besides naturally getting Mitch home safely, Teddy and his team must negotiate the usual treacherous PR protocol to make sure that Mark's inadvertent abandonment does not embarrass, discredit, and eventually defund NASA. And meanwhile, back on Ares III heading back to Earth, the crew, especially guilt- ridden Commander Lewis, must decide, once NASA finally informs them, whether to continue home or return to rescue Mark, depending not only on whether they have enough fuel to do one or the other, but also on coordinating ship/Mars trajectory just right to get Mark.
And so "Martian" oscillates among these three scenarios and dilemmas and manages, in my opinion, to do it without boring and, if you'll excuse the expression, alienating the audience. How can a space movie without aliens (even Marvin), laser weapons, or aerial combat hope to do this? I think "Martian" succeeds in this by being more knowledgeable than its audience, but in a way that instructs the audience without talking down to them. The movie explains many astrophysical, mechanical, and chemical concepts (including a crucial "slingshot" maneuver) that help keep the movie going forward and the audience invested in the characters' fates. It certainly helps that Damon's character Mark, in his daily video journal of his ordeals, explains much of this scientific stuff in largely (and often laugh-out-loud profane) layperson's terms.
Furthermore, "Martian" reminds us that no national organization has a monopoly on knowledge. When NASA's attempt to send supplies in a booster rocket explodes into failure, they willingly ignore political tensions to contact chief scientist Guo Ming (Eddy Ko) and deputy chief scientist Zhu Tao (Chen Shu) at Chinese counterpart Chinese National Space Agency (CNSA) to help stabilize the payload. Ah, science rejects borders and embraces diversity. Finally, "Martian" uses science to ratchet up the intense suspense as Ares III does decide to go back to get Mark by plotting a trajectory and spacewalk, while Mark plots a rendezvous point and prepares a lightened space capsule and "spacesuit propulsion" system to hopefully get close enough to Ares III to grab him before his oxygen runs out.
"Martian"'s intelligence also complements the convincing special effects, believably fallible but professional and determined characters (especially Mark), and the realistic depiction of the problems and triumphs of space agency bureaucracy and more importantly space exploration to make an absorbing and involving movie. Not least, "Martian" succeeds because it respects human intelligence and persistence so much, it convinces us that humanity will eventually surmount space's often deadly "uncooperativeness".
P.S.: I saw this movie in the theater in 3D? Does 3D enhance the experience? In my opinion, it does to a slight degree, in the depiction of the Martian sandstorms and the flying spaceships. Yet, I felt it was largely unnecessary. Space's grandeur and infinite mystery come through even without the extra dimension.
P.P.S.: I especially appreciated how Mark explained how planting crops (like potatoes on Mars) in a new land effectively colonizes that land, and how the distinction between international law and maritime law technically made him a "space pirate". Arrrrgh!