'Armageddon' meets 'Cast Away' with better CGI

Rating: 6/10 (13 October 2015)

I thought that by the time Robert Zemekis yelled 'Cut!" after the final scene of "Cast Away" fifteen years ago we were done with "I'm- left-for-dead-but-the-power-of-my-spirit-and-the-high-school-science- classes-will-get-me-home" dramas. Nope. For some reason, my lifetime hero Ridley Scott decided to step on that same track that's been beaten so many times before him. As a result we have an attempt at an exciting story supposedly brimming with thrilling potential turn into a Bond movie, only without the body count. To me it's just silly to spend two hours sitting on the edge of the seat, motionless, while knowing more or less what all the lead-ins are going to be and what the grand finale will look like. So, I fast-forwarded a lot and something tells me, I didn't miss a whole a lot of twists and turns: and Astronaut (Damon) is left alone on Mars as a result of a mission gone bad but he survives against all odds and is eventually brought back home. That's it in a nutshell (I feel silly retelling this story, it was pretty easy to surmise even from the very first trailer). The rest is just 'Armageddon' with better CGI, constant disco in the background and the foreseeable Damon's own brand of humor. For Scott this is a first (meaning, first by-the-book drama), I even went back and looked at his resume to be sure. Not gonna ask myself why has he done it, just another feel good candidate for the Oscars? I guess. Oh, and the spoiler, of course. Ready? Everything is going to be fine. Enjoy the disco!