Excellent story with a good focus and spectacular space drama

Rating: 8/10 (24 October 2015)

I had already been looking forward to this movie for quite a while, because I am already very fascinated with astronomy and the universe. After re-watching 'Interstellar', which was a fantastic movie, this space movie, depicting Astronaut Mark Watney being stranded alone on mars while trying to grow crops and finding a way to communicate with NASA and the rest of the familiar normal world in a hostile environment far away from earth, just has an absolutely optimal change between the fight for survival of Mark (exquisitely portrayed by Matt Damon who, in my opinion, is finally worthy of an Oscar) and the desperate, yet obviously controlled try to put a rescue plan together at NASA. The movie keeps a wonderful focus on the political and sociological issues without getting too entangled in it, so you feel that some fresh story is happening all the time. There is no need to be a super genius or a physicist to understand the complex language, which is used in the movie, because this is covered in a good deal of very humorous situations, featuring Matt Damon's character uttering jokes and sarcastic comments about his current situation. In my opinion, this movie has what 'Gravity' didn't have: Namely, the focus on, what's happening on earth as well as in space. Although, this comparison may seem a little far-fetched, it is only meant as a comparison of the space genre, not the fact that 'Gravity' was made to be sort of a "lonely" movie. So, naturally, since 'Gravity' was the harvester of several Oscars last year it would only be more than fair, if 'The Martian' also took home at least The Best Actor title.