Not Perfect, but a Solid, Enjoyable Story

Rating: 8/10 (7 October 2015)

First of all... I really enjoyed The Martian, and I think that most people would. It's a long film, but it did manage to pick up the pace a bit, right when I was starting to get a little bored.
Whenever a film like this, which tries to be accurate, is released... Everyone, including me, starts to pick apart the technical inaccuracies, and there are a few. The most commonly mentioned so far is the "impossible" sandstorm at the beginning of the film. Such an event is, indeed, quite impossible on Mars, and even the author admits that it was merely a plot device. He should have thought of a better one.
However, there is nothing in The Martian that just screams "No Way!" to me. The author and the filmmakers did a very good job of trying to be as accurate as possible, while still allowing the story to proceed. There is some "artistic license" but there is no "deus ex machina" in The Martian. It's a good movie that doesn't betray anything that is science.
Really, the most unbelievable thing that I saw in the whole movie was the gym on the Hermes -- Huge Windows and 5 times the space and gym equipment needed to accommodate 6 astronauts. It looked like the hotel gym at the Marriott. No Way would NASA or anyone else waste that kind of space, and build such an unrealistic section of the ship.
As long as I'm doing my part in the nit-picking, we are once again faced, as in so many space-travel movies, with a centrifuge that is too small and/or doesn't rotate fast enough. And it doesn't feel like normal gravity either, as is readily apparent if you just gently toss a tennis ball into the air. OK, I'm done with my nit-picking.
As many people already have stated, I was instantly reminded of the movie "Cast Away", with Tom Hanks. I liked Cast Away, but it did get boring at times. The Martian solves this problem by injecting a bit more humor and action into the film. Rather than Hanks' downbeat character, Damon's character is far more upbeat and involved in his own rescue throughout the entire film. I definitely did not expect the humor that is present throughout the film. Whether it was script-writing, ad-libbing, or a combination of the two, it worked out quite well.
As with most movies of this type, the ending is poor compared to the rest of the film. The climax is so over-the-top dramatic that I didn't get the least bit excited about it. The thing is... the film didn't even Need a climax. The climax was already built in. A guy has survived on Mars for well over one year. Just being rescued at all is a climax. Instead, we got a bomb set off aboard a spaceship -- intentionally -- and some kind of glove-thruster maneuver.
I think that a much better ending would have been Watney passing out during the launch (which he did in the movie) and then waking up to slowly see the Hermes come into focus, nearby, slowly approaching, and a waiting Hermes crew-member with an outstretched hand. Add a few tears if you like that sort of thing.
Too bad this film didn't get to show on IMAX.
Overall, a great film. It's definitely worth it to see it in on the big screen.