A testament to the indomitable spirit of man
By Murtaza Ali Khan
Featured in IMDb Critic Reviews
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| The Martian - By Ridley Scott |
IMDb Ratings: 8.5
Genre: Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi
Cast: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Country: USA
Language: English
Runtime: 141 min
Color: Color
Summary: During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.
The Martian is a 2015 American Sci-Fi film directed by the celebrated
English filmmaker Ridley Scott. Based on a 2011 novel of the same name by Andy
Weir, The Martian is adapted for the
screen by Drew Goddard—the director of the 2012 horror comedy The Cabin in the Woods. The Martian presents the epic tale of survival
of a NASA astronaut, Mark Watney, who is presumed dead after a violent storm and
left behind by his crew members on the planet Mars. The movie’s stellar cast,
with Matt Damon in the lead, features the likes of Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel
Ejiofor, Sean Bean, Kate Mara, Jeff Daniels, Michael Peña, Kristen Wiig, Sebastian
Stan, and Mackenzie Davis.
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| Matt Damon as NASA Astronaut Mark Watney in The Martian |
Andy Weir’s The Martian can be
seen as a continuation of the long tradition of epic storytelling adventures as
reflected in the sprawling sagas of tale tellers like Homer, Dumas, Verne,
Twain, Kipling, and Conrad. It is a common notion that any tale of adventure is
as good as its hero. At first sight, Astronaut Mark Watney comes across as a
regular guy (Damon is perfectly cast). Yes, he is a NASA astronaut sent to Mars as part of the Ares III
manned mission but that’s that, until the mission goes awry and we get to see
the geek, hitherto hiding behind his guy-next-door façade. We soon learn that
Watney is a highly skilled mechanical engineer as well as a botanist. But,
that’s barely enough for survival on a planet that’s not supposed to support
life in the first place! If there’s one instinct that’s absolutely necessary
for survival, it is composure; and Watney is as cool as ice. Add to that his
steely grit and a particularly jovial disposition. Voila, we have a perfect
hero in the making!
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| Mark Watney with the crew of Ares III |
What happens to Watney in The
Martian may appear quite analogous to the doomed fate of castaways. In
fact, Watney’s survival instincts remind one of the protagonist (brilliantly
essayed by Tom Hanks), who survives a crash landing on a deserted island, in
Robert Zemeckis’ Cast Away. It’s a
great coincidence that The Martian is
currently locking horns at the box-office with Zemeckis’ latest offering, The Walk. Andy Weir's The Martian is essentially a testament
to the indomitable spirit of man, perhaps a Robinson
Crusoe that takes place on Mars or a paean to the two undisputed
masterworks of American literature, Herman Melville's Moby Dick and Earnest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea.
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| Chiwetel Ejiofor as NASA Engineer Vincent Kapoor |
The Martian is a grueling account of a man’s struggle for survival in a
hostile environment, and, while it may now sound like a joke to some, Weir actually
had to struggle a lot to get his book published. He began writing the book in 2009 and studied
orbital mechanics, astronomy as well as the history of manned spaceflight as
part of his research. When he didn’t find much luck with the publishers, Weir
decided to put the book online in serial format, one chapter at a time, for
free. It was only later that, at the request of his fans, he released an Amazon
Kindle edition that went on to sell 35,000 copies in three months and that’s
how The Martian eventually caught the
attention of publishers. Weir sold the print rights to Crown in March 2013 for
over a hundred thousand dollars.
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| Jessica Chastain as mission commander Melissa Lewis |
Touted as one of the most anticipated releases of the year, The Martian seems to have got a major
box-office boost by the recent NASA findings that confirm the existence of
liquid water on the Red Planet. In the movie, however, Astronaut Watney is shown
producing water, through a chemical reaction using Hydrazine, to grow potatoes.
Ridley Scott and team give us a perfect Sci-Fi adventure that touches us both
viscerally and intellectually. The movie’s scientific accuracy (there are some
minor inconsistencies, of course) can be attributed to the presence of James L.
Green, the director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA, as an adviser. As
far as Hollywood is concerned, space travel has become a recurring motif in
recent years. While it was Christopher Nolan’ Interstellar last year, it was Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity the year before. The Martian is certainly superior to Gravity in that it talks about more than
just the perils of space travel, but it fails to match the metaphysical depth
of Interstellar.
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| A Still from Ridley Scott's The Martian |
Overall, The Martian proves to
be a cerebral movie viewing experience, offering a nice mix of scientific knowledge
and entertainment. The movie marks Ridley Scott’s return to his most favorite
genre, after a gap of three years, following Prometheus. The Martian
couldn’t have come at a better time for Scott, given the poor show of his
previous two films, Exodus and The Counselor. Matt Damon too deserves our
praise for bringing the movie to life with his soulful performance (an Oscar
nomination seems to be on the cards). He is well supported by the rest of the
cast. While both Chastain and Ejiofor are solid as ever, Sean Bean makes his
presence felt in the short screen time he gets (there is also a cute little reference
to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings). It
really hurts to see someone as talented as Bean getting underutilized. Alas, it’s
a norm with Hollywood to waste talent! The
Martian entertains us at different levels but not at the cost of science. While
it may not deal with complex scientific concepts like relativity, space-time
continuum, black holes, time dilation, worm holes, or time travel, it
nonetheless succeeds in stimulating our curiosity for space travel. Traveling
to Mars no longer feels like a dream. If it can be shown on a cinematic screen,
it can also be done for real. An idea, as they say, is the most resilient
parasite. A must watch!
Readers, please feel free to share your views/opinions in the comment box below. As always your insightful comments are highly appreciated!
Note: A version of this review was re-published in the Huffington Post.
References:
Note: A version of this review was re-published in the Huffington Post.
References:
The Martian (2015) Trailer (YouTube)
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