Pure enjoyment

Rating: 10/10 (4 November 2015)

This is a remake of a sort. The year was 1964. The film was Robinson Crusoe on Mars. We didn't know much about Mars then and there was still some fantasy that the atmosphere on the Red Planet would be thick enough for water to be found.The passage of time has made it a classic of the science fiction genre. Fifty years later, we'd think a remake would be atrocious by comparison, like it was for The Day the Earth Stood Still or War of the Worlds and many other classics of the fifties. But this is not so. The Martian is magnificent in all aspects. This time around, we know what Mars really looks like. Ridley Scott has it pinned down pretty well. No standing water. A thin, unbreathable atmosphere. The sun is farther away, thus less light at least for our human eyes. Lifeless world with a bluish-grey sky or orange tint as red oxidized dust fills the atmosphere. Put in a few dust devils and lightning in the distance and you are definitely there, on Mars. The lone Martian has to survive. His crew has left him for dead after an unlikely freak dust storm has forced them to take off. Had to happen for the movie to take off, so to speak. The rest is made of ingenious solutions to survive, not to mention ample use of duct tape. Really, don't ever leave Earth without it. Everything is kind of believable until the end. Of course, so many things would have to go right for the abandoned astronaut to survive that, in most likelihood, he would not. But this is science fiction. Matt Damon puts in a great performance as astronaut Mark Watney and the rest of the cast pitches in believably. I wasn't expecting the movie to be so hilariously funny at times, but it is. The Martian never felt long to me and was enjoyable to the end. The science aspects of it was top notch and made you believe that it could be done. Kudos for the writers. This is excellent work. All in all, the best new movie I've seen in many years.