A monumental cinematic achievement

Rating: Null/10 (30 September 2015)

The year's not over yet but if I were to form a list today, THE MARTIAN most definitely takes the top spot. It's the best movie of 2015 and quite frankly, it's the best Ridley Scott movie since "Gladiator." It's no secret that I found Scott's movies to have been quite disappointing over the past fifteen years or so, "Kingdom Of Heaven," "Body Of Lies," "Robin Hood," "Prometheus" for example — they just existed — they didn't leave a mark nor carry a lot of weight. But I had hope that the director who gave us such classics as "Alien," and "Blade Runner" would return to his form and I find that in THE MARTIAN.
Based on Andy Weir's outstanding debut novel and adapted by Drew Goddard ("Cloverfield," "Cabin In The Woods") Oscar winner Matt Damon plays astronaut Mark Watney who's a member of the NASA crew that explores the planet Mars. A storm forces them to leave their mission but a debris hits Watney and he's presumed dead as his fellow crew members leave him behind. But surprise! Wanted survives, he must now figure out how to continue to survive on that desolate planet where nothing grows and his food supplies are dwindling while at the same time figure out how to make contact with NASA. Mark Watney relies on his wit, his botany skills, his courage and his strong determination to get through each day as NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring him home.
What's funny about this is that a couple of years ago, Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity" was also the best movie of that year in my book, and last year, Matt Damon played a character in Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar" that somewhat went through a similar situation as his "The Martian" character, Mark Watney although they're not exact copy. But the point is, THE MARTIAN, at the heart of it, is a survival movie, just like any other survival movies you've seen about one person stranded on some island or some deserted place. What makes THE MARTIAN unique is that it's unlike any other sci-fi movies, mostly because author Andy Weir impressively did his best to make every aspect and every element of this film as accurate as possible. The extensive research is remarkable. In addition to that, the film feels like a series of solving math problem, one after another. Every time there's a glimmer of hope, a problem comes along and complicates the situation again, but it only pushes the characters to brainstorm, to think outside the box and reach out to other help.
THE MARTIAN is a monumental cinematic achievement. From the story to the performances to the production design to the VFX, to the editing to every little detail of technical standpoint, everything about this film embodies excellence. It gives us what "Interstellar" could not, because Nolan's movie meant well, but the concept unfortunately trumped its story whereas "The Martian" has them go hand-in-hand. And perhaps some audiences might view this movie as a bit political especially with the scenario of NASA getting assistance from China's space program, but I think anybody from any background could view that as basic morality, the things that we humans could accomplish if we were to focus on a common goal instead of making it be only about a space race. It's amazing that even some smart nerd in Pasadena could bring positive contribution or an idea to the table. The movie is about a collaboration of all these people just to bring one man home, so it's more or it's a much bigger picture than just about Matt Damon's Mark Watney. THE MARTIAN is epic in every sense of the word, it will make you applaud at the end, it deserves a standing ovation.
I hope THE MARTIAN would reignite today's generation's interest to once again dream big and look to the skies. Not everybody is going to be an astronaut or work for NASA's plan of someday putting a man on Mars, but personally, I think films like THE MARTIAN, stories such as this, solidify what I've always strongly believed to be true, science is sexy.