The sci-fi we deserve and need to see

Rating: 9/10 (4 October 2015)

I've read the book before I watched the movie and I absolutely loved it. It's sense of humorous optimism and of the value of scientific achievement is, quite frankly, unparalleled. So the question is, how did the movie fare? It did really well, too!
This is the kind of science fiction movie that we need to see: it is about science, using fiction. It is not using technobabble to give us fiction. The difference is huge! Also, most "sciency" films are going for the dark and broody feel, discussing the things that people fear about science, not the things that people love. The Martian does not do that!
Not everything is rosy, though. In order to cram a book filled with inner introspection, science calculations, explanations of what was going on, all going on for almost two years, the film had to take some liberties with what was shown and what wasn't. My feeling is that they did a good job, but even for a two hour and a half movie it wasn't quite enough. My wife was still asking me what was going on and why did he do that and where is he going.
In fact, the biggest defect of the movie was to eliminate the sense of size for the planet Mars that is present in the book. Seeing some guy going to the Pathfinder landing spot in a few minutes and then Pathfinder back at base doesn't begin to show the scale of travel and difficulty Watney had to overcome. Also, Damon does a good job bringing humor to the script, but the book was filled with jokes and that Weir humor and optimism.
Bottom line: A movie that doesn't need deux ex machina to save the protagonist, doesn't need implausible crises or alien villains to share the thrill and terror of space exploration and yet shows that hope, friendship, skill and hard work, knowledge and science can overcome any obstacle. We needed that. Thank you, Andy Weir! Thank you, Ridley Scott!