More techno-narcissism

Rating: 3/10 (27 December 2015)

Matt Damon is stranded on Mars and after a couple years or so will run out of food. Naturally, federally-funded Space Agencies worldwide spend billions to rescue him! Sure, they COULD spend that same money to improve the lives of many thousands of people here on earth. But that thought isn't meant to cross the audience's mind. It definitely doesn't occur to Matt Damon's character, either. At every step, our protagonist is two-dimensional, completely self-absorbed, entirely unsympathetic. He relishes his role as "colonizer of worlds" but refuses to accept that his life is of limited value. Instead, science is his salvation and the rest of humanity is just another tool for him to ply. His interminable video selfies are an indictment of our era, of our inability to tell a story or to live a true narrative. This movie is bereft.