Ridley Scott.....Master of all he surveys

Rating: 10/10 (3 October 2015)

3 October 2015 Film of Choice at The Plaza Dorchester Tonight - The Martian. People as a race seem to thrive on stories of our exploration into space........and a good disaster. Ridley Scott has taken the two and rather splendidly put them together. As we were once enthralled by the true story of Apollo 13 and their struggles to get home, we are now gripped by the fictional tale of Mark Watney who is left behind, presumed dead, when a storm forces his fellow crew members to abandon their mission on Mars. However, and this is not a spoiler........Watney is alive!!!!!! This is the tale of his survival and the gargantuan task of bringing him home. Although this is very much a life and death story I was not sat on the edge of my seat. Ridley Scott takes us gently but firmly through the journey travelled by all characters and delivers us most definitely to a conclusion. Even though it is well over two hours long this film did not seem drawn out and there were many small moments of humour to break the tension. Harry Gregson-Williams, who scored the soundtrack, was interviewed on radio 2 recently and gave a short but candid look into how you start to score music in comparison to timing of the filming. However it is that he manages to do so, he manages it superbly bringing a sympathetic yet dramatic edge to the cinematography, that combined with a jaunty disco soundtrack rounds of an excellent evenings entertainment........plus it's always nice to watch Matt Damon on the big screen!!!!