It Won't Really Make An Impression On You

Rating: 5/10 (7 October 2015)

I began to feel somewhat uneasy about the storyline when during the opening sequence of the film, the huge NASA lander was suddenly struck by a violent hurricane force winds on the surface of Mars. The huge multi-story lander ship becomes at-risk for toppling over in the strong winds, and for the next few minutes the camera frantically cuts back and forth between a computer screen indicating the ship's angle of tilt in the wind, and several crewman who are excitedly urging the captain to launch in the middle of the violent wind storm. Presumably the sequence in which the lander nearly topples over in the wind storm was supposed to build suspense, but rather than building suspense it simply came across as a tired sci-fi cliché, reminiscent of the scene in the movie 2012, in which all of the main characters watched a digital clock count down the number of seconds until the monster wave arrived. Come on Hollywood, the audience is smarter than that!
For the most part Matt Damon does a passable job of pretending to be an astronaut stranded on Mars, but his character lacks any of the emotional depth displayed by Tom Hank's character in the movie Cast Away. Although Damon's character eventually looks like he could use a shave and a haircut, he always appears as though he just stepped out of the gym, and his eyes are always twinkling for the camera. (I suspect that middle-aged mothers taking their young sons to see this movie will enjoy Damon's character.)
Additionally, I really wanted to believe that Jeff Daniels was capable of playing the complex role of a NASA bureaucrat, but Daniels' character seems more like a shallow blow dried character from some anti-Wall Street movie, rather than someone with a scientific background.
The rest of the NASA ground crew is made up of the usual predictable quirky nerd characters, and absolutely none of the Earth bound characters seem real, or deliver performances that are memorable or worthwhile. Another annoyance with this film is the fact that Damon's character constantly proclaims that he will use "Science" in order to stay alive, but the film itself is absolutely choked full of all sorts of glaring scientific flaws, beginning with the hurricane force storm at the beginning of the movie.
The bottom line is that "The Martian" isn't a tense science fiction thriller, with at least some pretense of accuracy (Contact, Deep Impact, or Gravity) but on the other hand the film also lacks any real action or suspense such as "Mission to Mars", or "Red Planet". It is a very confused film. The only saving grace this film has is the stunning vista shots of Mars, which appear to look absolutely authentic. Go ahead and see it, but a few days later you won't even think about it afterwards.