Ridley: oh dear

Rating: 6/10 (30 September 2015)

Ridley Scott has a superb track record and I have seen nearly all of his films.
I read The Martian and eagerly anticipated the movie.
A strange disappointment. There is so much that is good (landscapes, the cast, much of the science) but the one thing missing, the key ingredient, is tension. The book achieves that by introducing cloud cover as our hero approaches his destination (bringing battery life to a halt) as well as car crashes, electrical failures, communication breakdowns with Earth and much else. Not in the film.
Why not? Was there so much else which needed to go in? Not really. Earth scenes of NASA arguments, news conferences and cheering were hammed up.
Could do better, Sir Ridley - or was that your last film?