The Martian

Rating: 7/10 (12 October 2015)

Ridley Scott is one of the greatest directors of his generation, often elevating a bland script to something far better if it were in the hands of a lesser filmmaker. While this is Scott's best film since Kingdom of Heaven, it is severely flawed none-the-less.
The true highlight of the film is the visual aesthetic. Mars looks great and remarkably not like the Jordan desert, where it was filmed. But it's not the David Lean-esque look of mars which is the most impressive, it's the scenes down on earth which are more majestic. Any director can make Mars look cinematic, but the harder task is to make a group of people talking in a room look cinematic. And Scott succeeds at this immensely. Each scene is staged in a unique way, which is interesting to look at. You understand the relationships and thoughts of the characters simply by the way the camera is positioned.
The performances are also good. Regular comedy performers Kristen Wiig and Jeff Daniels give wonderfully restrained performances and Matt Damon grabs your attention simply by planting potatoes. No one truly stood out though as an attention grabber which is nice to see, but ultimately unrewarding and sometimes bland.
The screenplay is honestly dull. While there is a good amount of humour added, the majority of it is complex science jargon which is engaging to listen to and hard to understand or care for. The number one priority for a screenwriter is to humanize the characters. The science exposition gets in the way for that to happen so there aren't that many characters you can relate to. The film never truly gets deep with it's struggle to get Mark Watney back home, probably because it is painfully obvious that he will.
The Martian is not a bad film but sometimes you think it could have been better, had the screenplay been better. Despite that, it is refreshing to see a sci-fi film that doesn't have the mind-boggling pretentiousness of something like 'Interstellar'.