Space Pirate

Rating: 8/10 (18 October 2015)

I had moderate expectations for "The Martian" and the film exceeded them. It wasn't a perfect movie by any means but, at least for me, it was entertaining and worth-watching. The scrip is fairly well-written and the direction is quite good too (specially in the Habitat/Mars set scenes) but what really stood out to me were the delivered performances.
Starting with Matt Damon. He is an excellent actor! He was a so-so for me(I never completely saw the Bourne trilogy nor Good Will Hunting) until yesterday. I knew he had the chops but I didn't relate to him as much as I relate to other actors and actresses. He is so good playing the part of Mark Watney. You believe in him and you care for the character and you feel the sense of desperation when everything seems to go wrong. Above all, I related to him. I don't know if any other actor could pull this specific role off and I believe Damon was the perfect casting choice.
Then we have Jessica Chastain. She is having a meteoric rise since 2010/2011, specially after Zero Dark Thirty. I find her to be an amazing actress, from "Mama" to "The Help" she is just superb. Whatever role she plays, we know we're in for a treat.
Aside from these two we have an ensemble cast filled with A-plus performers. Jeff Daniels as NASA director turns to a more serious and darker role, Michael Peña is the film's comic relief and he does it extremely well, Chiwetel Ejiofor is as good as always, Kate Mara and Sebastian Stan, take a huge part in the movie climax and they're performances are flawless. Aksel Hennie is also quite good, washing away his performance on "Last Knights",
Despite having less screen time is always amazing to see Kristen Wiig and Sean Bean. I was not aware Bean had a role in the film until I saw him sitting at a desk and it was a lovely surprise.
The technical effects are well-achieved, at least for me, although Matt 's body near the end seems really CGI and wasn't as polished as I think it should have been. The end to me was a bit "fairy-tally" but I'm good with it.
"The Martian" shines due to the performances of its cast and through some breathtaking scenes in Mars (Watney's performing surgery on himself was gasp-taking). An good effort from Ridley Scott on the sci-fi genre but I don't quite know if it should be recognized as an Oscar Contender.