5/5

Rating: Null/10 (29 November 2015)

Imagine being left for dead on a desolate planet 200 million miles way -- with no way to call for help. For astronaut Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) in The Martian, that nightmare has become reality. After a mission goes horribly wrong, Watney must survive alone on Mars with limited life support and find a way to communicate to NASA that he is still alive. He uses his knowledge and botany expertise to come up with endless MacGyver-like solutions to problem the planet has to throw at him.
While The Martian predominantly follows Mark during his struggle for survival, the scenes of NASA back on Earth really bring everything together, and prevent the movie from being just two and a half hours of Matt Damon talking to himself. As great as Damon was, the actor who really stole the show was Donald Glover, who plays astrophysicist Rich Purnell. Glover was only in a few scenes, unfortunately, but he gave us all the comic relief that Damon's cheesy one-liners failed to provide.
The stunning special effects and absolutely beautiful soundtrack combined to create a perfect atmosphere and an incredible experience, and I often felt as if I was actually there. Some would point out that the raging storm at the beginning of the movie would be impossible in Mars' atmosphere. While that is true, it didn't break the immersion for me at all since the rest of the movie is extremely scientifically accurate. As well-done as this movie is, however, the immersion was broken at times, mainly during Damon's aforementioned one-liners. I cringed when he muttered, "F*** you, Mars," to himself, and even more so when he said, "I'm gonna have to science the s*** out of this." The lines seemed forced and, amongst a few other lines, tarnished an otherwise-perfect script. It really took away from the serious tone that the rest of the movie had established. That being said, if 10 cheesy lines are all I have to complain about in a 2.5- hour movie, I'd say it turned out pretty well.
Between the fantastic cast, awe-inspiring special effects, amazing soundtrack, and near-perfect script, director Ridley Scott made me almost wish I was stranded on Mars right alongside Mark Watney. The Martian is an absolute must-see and I give it 5 stars out of 5.