Monday, 5 October 2015

fiLmReviEw
THE MARTIAN [2015, USA - English]
Based on the best-selling novel by Andy Weir, the star-glossed latest blockbuster by Ridley Scott, titled simply The Martian has been making waves at the box office, and earning rave reviews by the critics. There's a lot of good stuff to talk about this "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" (as how director Scott intended to depict Matt Damon's character) flick, I'll still insist to do so without giving it away too much. So no spoilers, just like how I always prefer in my reviews.
The theme is rather straight forward. Damon's character Mark Watney, is a NASA astronaut who is incorrectly presumed dead by his crew members and left stranded alone on planet Mars. But what follows in this 141-minute adventure is an astounding and eye-opening journey by Watney which is nothing but simple; where the clever use of Science, Technology, Math and Engineering will be helping this man stay alive. First off, Scott's film has been praised for getting the crucial science right. The 77-year old director who has helmed numerous cinematic gems including Alien (1979), Thelma & Louise (1985) and Gladiator (2000), has taken serious measures to ensure he gets his science accurate, including getting Dr Jim Green, the director of NASA's Planetary Science Division to be one of his advisors on the film. Audience will revel in the series of "MacGyver-moments" pulled by Watney to survive on the Red Planet. Creating his own water. Building an entire garden to grow crops using Martian soil and his own feces as fertiliser. These are all inspiring yet appropriately accurate, scientifically. The Martian has even earned the approval from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who expressed appreciation on how much the film respects science. As far as comparisons with the novel, aside from Gone Girl (2014) Scott's film has been lauded as one of the most loyal book adaptation that Hollywood has produced to date. Even most of the dialogue used was lifted straight from Andy Weir's 2011 sci-fi novel.
With co-stars like Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeff Daniels, Michael Pena, Sean Bean, Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids), Sebastian Stan (Winter Soldier in Captain America) and Donald Glover (NBC sitcom Community), the film boasts a stellar cast; but Damon's performance single-handedly turns an epic tale of survival in space into something intimate and human. On his own he has to hold the screen for long stretches, talking to himself into the many cameras that serve as his daily log and in a way his refuge, and the Bourne-actor's performance is all convincing and engaging. He has managed to reap admiration for his eureka moments and yet becoming an empathetic everyman who audience will be rooting for.
The recent sci-fi blockbusters have all stretched themselves rather long, and my problem with the much raved-about Gravity (2013) was that it contained too much exasperation and literally hard-breathing and gasping moments and it somehow diluted a lot of other emotional angles of how the film should and could've been; hence making it felt rather long. I found myself thoroughly entertained throughout watching The Martian. There were comical moments as well, coupled with its feel-good 70s disco soundtrack, great performances by the cast collectively; and not to mention that Scott has not only captured the visually stunning landscapes of Mars, but cleverly filming the intimate landscapes of the main cast's faces, the film is profuse in both marvel and emotional achievements.
Rating : A-


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