Make it so ...

Rating: 6/10 (28 October 2015)

I had trouble with this movie. Someone should remind produces that movies are about 2 hours long. They can't include everything. The Chinese really serve no useful purpose here, as they debate whether to help or not using subtitles.
There was an awful lot of talk. By and large, Matt Damon delivered it well: if he had not, the film would have been a total bomb. He is engaging, charming, witty, observant, intelligent and courageous. He does convey (lightly) the problems he has and so by the end, we believe him when he says
At some point, everything's gonna go south on you and you're going to say, this is it. This is how I end. Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work. That's all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem and you solve the next one, and then the next. And If you solve enough problems, you get to come home.
But the dialogue can become tiresome, especially when nothing is really going on. Many people I've talked to found the syllogism on becoming a space pirate very engaging. I did not. At best it was sophistry and at worst garble that took up valuable time. I defer, however, to those that liked it.
It is long.
It does not have well developed minor characters.
It has scenes and speeches that are inappropriate or at best underdeveloped It had Picardian science (Jon Luc Picard -- Star Trek -- The Next Generation) who is wont to say "Make it so." Well just because he commands it to be so, does not make it so -- like explaining the sling shot effect to the director of NASA. The Director of NASA would understand what it was.
If you want to see how this movie should be done, rent Apollo 13 and save yourself 25 dollars doing it. See how Ed Harris plays Jeff Daniel's part and how Tom Hanks does the Martian.
That is not actually the fault of either Daniels or Damon. It is the fault of the writer and the director.
Still I gave it a six. That's because Damon doesn't fail -- ever.