Great, realistic, space adventure

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2018)

'The Martian' is based on Andy Weir's excellent novel - one of my favourite books from last year. It's a very simple concept - in the near-future, a manned-mission to Mars goes awry and Mark Watney (Damon) is presumed dead, as the rest of the team returns to Earth. However, rumours of Watney's demise were exaggerated and he just manages to survive, only to be faced with the conundrum of how to stay alive on a freezing planet with almost no food, water or oxygen until he can be rescued?
It's beautifully shot, with Jordan a good stand-in for Mars on most occasions, and the CGI doing the rest. And there's obviously a few shots of Earth from space - always a great perspective to see. Scott directs well, with the pacing good, and time spread across the strong cast - Chastain, Peña, Mara, Stan and Hennie on the spaceship home; and Daniels, Ejifor, Bean and Wiig at NASA - showing how everyone involved deals with the initial tragedy and then attempted rescue mission(s).
However, the film belongs to Damon, who has to use all his charm and skills to make one man talking to a video journal interesting. The film's possibly 15min or so too long, but luckily, it's a great book & a good screenplay, so there's plenty of levity to go along with the serious life-or-death/fingernail-chewing moments. Tense/great final 25min or so. Never quite reaches the heights of the book, but comes very close.