meh. The story just doesn't work as a film

Rating: 4/10 (6 November 2015)

I expected way too much from this film and it was quite disappointing.

Costumes and visuals were great 10/10. The music was lacking.

The film just isn't long enough to properly tell a story and convey a message. There just isn't enough plot to show how Mark Watney wants to leave the planet. We don't see the struggles of him trying to produce water, oxygen and food. We just briefly see him decide to do it and then he does. Though the book covers the science more, we still don't see the struggle. We don't see him struggle to survive; we don't see him starve on a potato a day. We don't see him struggle with isolation. It's like he doesn't mind being on Mars at all.

There is a lack of emotion shown by the actors. We don't see a bond between the crew built to show how they'd happily go on a month long missions to get him back.

The humour from Watney was poor and featured too much swearing over and over as if it were funny.

Can he just let go of constantly bringing up Lewis' music?

I just wasn't feeling the 'hurray!!' scenes after every rocket launch. There must have been four where the mission control get up clapping and hugging each other.

There's a loss of meaning. Is the film not about how difficult is is for Watney as he tries to live on Mars and how life on Earth is so much easier so we should protect it?

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tl;dr the film could probably have been a series where they go into more detail and show more emotion and show the struggles of those on Earth and of Watney.