The Martian

This is a rare, light-hearted science fiction film that deliberately downplays the most common fears about the future and the unknown universe, focusing instead on human effort and the science that can save humanity.The film has a tech-geek's idiocy and optimism. (Matt Damon, of course, did it perfectly.)Even if the movie is a little bit stereotypical in its emotional setting, it can still touch the audience at crucial moments.

The Ares III manned mission encounters a sand storm on Mars. Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is left for dead as the rest of the crew evacuate on their spacecraft. Mission control back on Earth is shocked when they discover that Mark is actually alive and alone on Mars.

Simply put, this is a fun space adventure. There is a good deal of Apollo 13 and Gravity. Damon is humorous and engaging. Meanwhile, the mission control back on earth is doing interesting things. Nobody is the villain. Jeff Daniels is a capable bureaucratic leader. Chiwetel Ejiofor gives the team intensity and has fun scenes with Mackenzie Davis. Almost every side character adds to the group. As for the spacecraft, it's interesting to have Jessica Chastain as the commander. The entire cast is great. The whole story is thrilling. There are unexpected turns. It has the feel of reality. A lot of praise has to be given to director Ridley Scott for a well constructed film. Also it's genius to give it a disco soundtrack.

Exceptional sci-fi drama from Ridley Scott about an astronaut (Matt Damon) stranded on Mars and the efforts made to rescue him. As others have pointed out, there's more than a little bit here that reminds you of movies like Apollo 13 and Cast Away (particularly the former). I fail to see how that's a knock on it but it's being presented as such by some. We all come to movies with our own expectations and baggage. I'm not a Scott fanboy expecting him to wow me (his last two films were not great). I just wanted to be entertained and this did the trick. It's a movie aimed at the masses that is smarter than your average movie aimed at the masses. Maybe it's not for all nerds (a quick glance at some of the reviews shows a lot of inane nit-picking from people who seem to have no concept of dramatic license), but I didn't find the movie dumbed-down at all. I also want to say how much I appreciated that this managed to stay remarkably light and positive while still maintaining the tension, proving once again that you don't have to be depressing to be good drama. If you haven't seen The Martian yet, you should. It's a great film with a first-rate cast, good direction, and stellar effects. If you're just looking for a quality movie to entertain you for a while, this should be something you'll enjoy.

If you've ever wondered if Tom Hanks went even further adrift in Castaway then this could be the answer you're looking for.

An Earth team are on Mars carrying out tests on the surface of The Red Planet, a message comes through from Earth warning of a huge and fast approaching storm. The team quickly assemble and flee, unfortunately Mark Watney is caught in the storm, loses his communication device and presumed dead. Watney has survived and has a harsh realism that he's abandoned on Mars with precious little supplies, no company and little chance of survival. Being 50 million miles away and 4 years away in terms of rescue life seems bleak. Watney has to defy the odds in order to survive.

Ridley Scott is responsible for so many wonderful films, and for many The Martian will sit among them.

This is a beautifully made film, it looks incredible, I love the realisation of Mars's surface, truly brilliant, wasn't going to be otherwise with the budget they had. The music is interesting, the score itself is quite subtle, but the tunes from Abba, Gloria Estefan etc are so random.

The pacing of the film is very cleverly done, never does it feel rushed, and on very few occasions does it feel slow or padded. If i'm honest at twenty minutes I was questioning how the film was possibly going to last over two hours.

Matt Damon shows his class, he carries the film on his shoulders, he gives a stellar performance as Mark, cannot be faulted. Some of the others in the film were a little hit and miss, I enjoyed Chiwetel Ejiofor very much. Jeff Daniels was fairly good. Kristen Wiig seemed an odd choice, but she was good too.

It was better then I expected, I enjoyed it a lot 8/10

Strong, well-executed, moving. Classic Scott-style directing, with its fast pace, yet never leaving emotion behind, keeping you glued to the screen throughout the runtime. Reminiscent of the original Alien, yet clearly proving the director's overall increased maturity and experience. My thoughts on the cinematography are mixed, from the one hand side the movie features a particularly bland color palette, most sequences however are nice, vivid and well-balanced. What strikes me the most is the fact that they didn't account for the reduced gravity on Mars, however not only is the price cut behind this clear, but also you forget it surprisingly easily in the first 10 minutes or so, since everything else is so gripping. The visual effects are simply flawless, realistic to the maximum and beautiful at the same time. The story itself and the characters are simply masterful, not at all out-of-this-world, or should i say the way facts are presented combined with the pacing makes you believe it's all happening at the time you're watching the movie. Though i am probably not meant to make this comparison, it leaves (in my humble opinion) Nolan's "Interstellar", a great movie on its own, completely in the dust, simply proving the effect Scott's experience has had on his work. A must-watch.