Clichéd, Far-Fetched, and Boring

Rating: 3/10 (17 January 2016)

I have learned over the past couple of movies that trusting the critics isn't the best idea. Critics loved Boyhood, I saw it, thought it was bland and boring. Critics loved Inside Out, I saw it, thought it was good, not great. Critics loved The Martian and I thought it was very much a "conveyor belt" movie, if that makes sense. It has very predictable elements, characters, scenarios, and dialogue that I just found it all very clichéd.
The main protagonist is Mark Watney (Matt Damon), an astronaut who also happens to be a botanist. After a bad asteroid storm hits Mars, which he is exploring in the year 2035 with other astronauts, he is hit by debris and knocked unconscious. He is left behind by the other astronauts, who are forced to leave due to the unstable conditions of the planet. When he wakes up, he discovers he is alone and he must figure out a way to survive with limited food resources, dropping oxygen levels, and no communication to planet Earth. Using his knowledge of botany, he figures out ways to grow potatoes utilizing what resources he has, at the same time he tries to find ways to communicate down to Earth.
If the movie sounds like a cautionary tale of a planet with limited resources and dwindling clean air, you definitely are correct. I'm not a political person by any means, but the environmental messages come through, at times a bit strong. I found the movie to be very paint by the numbers. All the characters just seemed like cardboard cutouts and nobody had a unique or interesting personality. There's not enough there to make me care about anyone and what's going on. It's all very predictable with generic dialogue and foreshadowing of what's about to happen. Also, the movie drags on and gets very boring. "Cast Away" I think did a better job of the "last man on earth/mars/island" scenario better. I just got very bored with the disco music, the journal entries, the potatoes, the driving around Mars, etc. Little to no character development hurt this as well.
Worst of all, this movie is so far-fetched that even if you suspend realty and go in with the expectation that yes, this is a fictional story, you still just shake your head at some of the situations. On a huge planet with no maps or anything, you can find and dig up EXACTLY what you need to get you back home? Please...
Maybe the book is better. The way the story unfolds it seems like it would work better in book form with longer exposition. As a film though, I found it contrived, preachy, far-fetched, and boring. Oh, and most definitely NOT a comedy.