Up there with Apollo 13 as one of the best space survival stories

Rating: 8/10 (3 October 2015)

Ridley Scott is a brand name in science fiction and his latest The Martian turns out to be a wildly engaging, edge of your seat space adventure that even manages to differentiate itself significantly (and pleasantly) from his previous works.
The film doesn't waste any time establishing its story. Within less than 15 minutes we go through a mission abort that leads to the team of astronauts hastily leaving the red planet, with the protagonist left for dead and finding himself alone, struggling against apparently impossible odds as he tries to figure out how to stay alive until the next mission arrives. The pace is in fact so fast over this opening act that compounded by Wantey's no-nonsense, unsentimental stance towards his ordeal seems a little underwhelming (in terms of dramatic impact). But as things start to go south and unforeseen disasters snowball both on the terrestrial and martian front, the Martian quickly escalates into a thrilling, epic in scale tale of survival.
Contrary to what you might have picked up from trailers, this isn't a tale about Watney and his struggle for survival. There is a good deal of that too, but the movie opts for an Apollo 13-like approach, with several intertwined story lines running concurrently on Earth, space and Mars, as several teams try to find a way to put a rescue mission together before Watney's supplies run out. There is a large and great ensemble cast surrounding Matt Damon's main character that adds a lot to the movie. That being said, the choice comes at the expense of segments dealing with Watney's isolation on Mars and its psychological impact. This is more Apollo 13 than Cast Away in space.
Scott has opted here for realism and much of his martian sets feel like they popped out of some real NASA photo of the red planet. Many of the shots even have a nearly earth-like feel. As such, do not expect the grandeur of Prometheus in terms of production design. This is essentially thinking science fiction, with minimal bells and whistles.
The only (possible) drawback is the uniformly optimistic outlook. Scot is well known for tackling morally ambiguous themes and not shying away from the darker side of even his protagonists. Bur there are no shades of gray in the Martian. Space agencies unite for the common good, NASA administrators are all well-meaning, the geek-force always delivers, the astronauts are universally heroic. If you like this style of feel-good, Star Trek science fiction, you are going to love this movie. I know I did.