The Martian – A review

Set under a pretext of a Mars mission of NASA, The Martian is a good light-on-the-mind movie. Should scientific intricacy be the trigger point for wanting to watch Space focused movies, this will disappoint you, especially if you have seen the likes of Armageddon and Apollo 13.  However, if you are in maddening love with Matt Damon or the red planet and possibilities of nurturing life there, book your tickets.

Based on Andy Weir’s 2011 novel by the same name, this movie has a powerful performance by the protagonist Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon. Hit by a storm, the crew of Ares III, the spaceship, had to leave the planet without Mark, who was feared dead in the furious storm, only to be realize later he was alive. It’s an inspiring journey thereon of a man fighting to survive on an uninhabited planet. Where his supplies can last only for a few days, Mark does not give up. With his Botany knowledge to his rescue, Mark cultivates potatoes to keep himself alive till the next shuttle would come for his rescue, improvises on the rover to reach the landing site of Ares IV, which had some infrastructure already planted by NASA and devises a communication mechanism with NASA engineers at Cape Canaveral. But all these is not without their share of additional challenges.

Dabbled with spurts of humorous one liners, the movie has some mind-catching monologues, be it one where Mark, after having grown potatoes on the red planet successfully, poses for camera and says “It might sound arrogant, but I am the best Botanist on the planet” or when he refers to Neil Armstrong, mocking the great’s achievements as nothing when compared to his own, being the first one to do anything on Mars. Science Nazis would have loved to see Ridley Scott (the Director) depict the gravitational difference (Mars’s being 40% of Earth’s) in the movie, but clearly he chose to ignore, as Mark walked on the planet as he would probably do on Earth.  

What happens in the end? Does he succeed at surviving? Do the crew return to rescue their own or would NASA veto any such decision by the former against risking the lives of the rest? These are some questions that will keep you hooked in what is portrayed as a see-saw struggle for survival. The Guardian’s comparing Matt’s act with the great Tom Hank’s Castaway performance and an 8.4 rating on IMDb, surely makes a strong case to watch; just don’t go expecting an Interstellar or Gravity.