Great Scott !

Rating: Null/10 (12 October 2015)

Ridley Scott has returned to form with The Martian due to sticking to the nuts-and-bolts of the story rather than some way-out SF-based theme(as in Prometheus). This is concerned with a space mission to Mars the red planet with a crew who are forced to leave an astronaut(MarkWatney) behind , thinking he's dead, when a dust storm blows up. Think of an Apollo 13 scenario where the astronaut played by Matt Damon has to survive until he is rescued in a very risky return by the retreating space vehicle which has to use the earth as a sling-shot device and pick him up in Martian orbit.
Scott has an ease of manner at dwelling on these space subjects. He's also learned from other films, like Silent Running and Cast Away and Saving Private Ryan. With the Mariner probes we face post-fantasy Mars, where science fact squeezed out science fiction, where a real Mars took over. There are no Martians and the only life on Mars is likely to be more like microbes. Matt Damon plays a plucky individual who "does the math" to estimate how long he can spin out his resources, oxygen, water, potatoes which he grows utilizing his own faeces as compost. He establishes a communication link and keeps a video blog .
Meanwhile back at NASA they are all thrilled he's still alive and calculate how many sols he's got before he dies. How soon can they send up another rocket to rescue him?Meanwhile in space we tune into the crew aboard the rocket, who when they discover he's alive have to debate pros/cons of returning to Mars or heading home to Earth. Watney can play Lieutenant Lewis's ( Jessica Chastain) awful 70s pop disco collection. Damon shows ingenuity, guts and chipper humour after his buddies have left him for dead. Classy space procedural getting the science mostly right from the Master Ridley.
Science fact and pseudo-science are the new sci-fi. We are not a million miles away from making this leap of faith to go to Mars and so I found the film plausible. We are like the cave painters projecting what we are going to do in the future. Matt Damon and Scott are the cherry on the cake. A mix of Cast Away and Apollo 13: survival is all. There are fictional parts like the dust storm and the flight back and retrieval. A beautiful use of Jordanian landscapes to simulate the Martian terrain and a feeling for a few local difficulties. No inner angst, but the heady optimism of simply pushing forward for survival. Based on Andy Weir's novel.