Of Miraculous Science and Sheer Human Ingenuity

Rating: 9/10 (30 September 2015)

In truth, The Martian's sentiments may come across as old-fashioned and impossibly conservative. The film's notions subsist in a territory less explored in the ever expanding immensity of the space sci-fiction genre, somehow deviating from the category's more standardized form, but it makes a clear point, one that strongly testifies to humanity's incredible capacity to survive.
The hero is Matt Damon's Mark Watney, who, after presumed dead by the rest of NASA's Ares 3 crew, was left in Mars, alone in the hostile red planet. He has at least four years to endure before a possible rescue mission arrives. But with limited rations left that may be good for only a few months, and persistent fatal conditions around him ever present, the witty Watney decides to "science the sh!t out of it" for him to survive, declaring he is the planet's greatest botanist, after all.
For most of his chunk of the screen time, Watney shares his daily struggle in seemingly endless monologues through a confessional Vlog, running through diverse subjects that go from things as random and simple as Donna Summers to those of unfathomable scientific and mathematical depths, like thermodynamics and hexadecimals. And if you're not really into such stuff, you would thank him for throwing punchlines every now and then, which sometimes may be corny and flat, but nonetheless enough to keep us away from getting bored. And with the rest of the cast mostly standing in front of screens monitoring him,y Damon singularly shines throughout the picture. That's not to say the rest of the frame is invaluable, but Watney's struggle itself creates an emotional connection between the worlds, relaying a cathartic sentiment that the audience would impossibly not relate to.
This may not be your no.1 sci-fi film, no thanks to a not- so- impressive finale, a bunch of supports whose functions mostly never go past just being stare-at-the- monitor standees, and some persistent logical leaps in the narrative, but it should be enough to shake up your list. Not only it pays with utmost reverence to science, it also explores its endless possibilities, which may not be within our grasp at the moment, but still scientifically possible.
With all that said, 'The Martian' is an exquisite cinematic gem, its sentiments reminiscent of familiar campaigns pulled off by countless previous films aiming to enforce humanity and its miraculous capacity. It's a celebration of human spirit and our species' ingenuity. And while everybody's abuzz about the recent discovery of existence of water in the red planet and the possibility it might be capable of supporting life, 'The Martian' has somehow delivered a compelling argument about how the planet probably can, one I believe, is worth checking out.