Apollo 13 meets Robinson Crusoe

Rating: Null/10 (12 November 2015)

Set in the not so distant future, The Martian tells about one of the first manned missions to Mars and how one of the astronauts gets left behind when an enormous sandstorm forces the crew to abort the mission. The story is about him trying to survive with extremely limited resources until help can arrive. For it takes about four years to get from Earth to Mars - they have to build the spaceship from scratch and all that - yet he only has food for a few months.
Matt Damon plays the lead role here and even though he has been in many good movies previously, I'd still claim that this is one of his finest yet. His range and his skill for acting out complex emotions without verbalizing them is what keeps us grounded, what keeps us with him throughout his ordeal. A nuanced, brilliant performance, deserving of the highest praise. Yet the film also has a very good supporting cast and I like that they focus on the happenings on Earth as well. NASA has rarely looked better on film than it does here.
I was also pleasantly surprised how captivating the movie was, given its style and story. Much of the film is really nothing more than constant, endless problem solving, with Damon's character Mark Watney having to overcome problem after another, likewise with NASA. It's a great movie about science and for science. Studying engineering or getting a Ph.D. in something else has never looked more inviting. Yet the movie is never boring, like some of you might think based on what I just said. The emotions are always there, the atmosphere is without a flaw brilliant and the characters feel so real that they will pull you in without a doubt.
If I had to name one problem with the film itself it's that you can definitely see that they had to cram a long, long novel full of detail into a single film. Because it really is nothing more than problem after another. So much so that it starts to feel a bit unrealistic. Sure, Mars is a hostile environment, but come on. Even Murphy of the famous Murphy's Law would say that this is a tad extreme.
Nevertheless, it's a very good movie. It has a clear identity, excellent story, fantastic cast, good music and is at its core exactly what cinema is all about.