Decent Sci-fi Survival Movie

Rating: 7/10 (27 October 2015)

The Martian, directed by Ridley Scott, is a fictional movie set on the planet of Mars. The movie begins with a group of astronauts making a mission on the planet when a storm hits. The crew is forced to evacuate, and one crew member is injured and abandoned. The allegedly dead astronaut , Mark Watney(played by Matt Damon), awakens alone. The plot of the movie is focused upon how Watney survives, and how he is rescued. The majority of the film is spent focused on the former. This is the movie's strongest portion, mostly due to a great performance by Matt Damon, and a witty script. The other part of the film, how Watney is rescued, is gone about in a realistic way. While this does help the audience become immersed in the movie, it creates sections of the film where Watney, who should be the main focus, is drowned out by other characters and dilemmas. Even though they sometimes take away from the film, these additional characters are still strong editions; they are each well developed, and have good writing. Lastly, the story unfortunately makes few surprising deviations from what the audience can predict will occur, leaving it somewhat underwhelming. Overall, The Martian is an intriguing and entertaining movie, but is never astounding.