The Martian

 

Like MOON and GRAVITY before it, I have found a genre of movie that I absolutely adore; Astronaut trapped in space or on a planetary or moon-like body who need to be rescued. Martian is the new must see movie from that genre. It's such a great performance from Matt Damon that is almost overshadowed by the fantastic stuff going on back on Earth and in space amongst Damon's crew mates who are still on their way back to Earth when they hear he is still alive. He was believed lost after a last minute escape by the crew during a storm. From the second Damon woke up alone on Mars I was hooked.

I love that thrill that a movie can give you when a character accomplishes a task. The moment that Earth realizes that Damon is still alive on the Red Planet is very exciting for the viewer. All of Damon's smart hard work pays off for that second and this movie lives on those tiny moments of victory.

And one Earth learns Damon is alive then the rescue is on.

Remember, Astronauts have a bond and from the trailer you already know that a heroic save by them is in the mix as well.

I loved watching Damon solve one important problem after the other. I love how he never gives into despair like you think he would wallow in. Instead, he uses his brain and in his own words He is going to 'Sciences the shit out of this thing." These are real life and death decisions that he has to make every second of the day. In a similar situation, I would have no idea even where to begin.

 

He has no hope for a realistic rescue because there is SO many things working against Damon but there are people who refuse to believe that and that is another thrilling part of this movie. Once I heard the song Star Man, I was totally committed to this TEAM rescue with the US and Chinese governments working together. It's cool to see the scenes of the world just riveted to the rescue mission because it's IS about one man. One of our own. Lost so far out in space. The whole rescue thing has to happen for man's space travel to continue. This mission has to succeed. Then more shit goes wrong and I have no idea what is going to happen next.

 

The movie does a good job displaying the solitude of being the only person on Mars. I love the effect Disco music has on his sanity. The final scenes have an almost comic book feel to them (in all the BEST ways) but everything rings authentic and true. In the old days this kind of movie would bring a crowd to their feet in ovation. I miss those days. But know that I cheered and clapped at my screen many times. I hope that doesn't spoil anything but all of us deserve a happy ending to a great story about the human spirit. Matt Damon is so underrated as an actor but damn he is so good here once again. I bought the whole premise from second one because of his performance.

Sean Bean is also especially good as the old school NASA guy who tries to pull everything together to make this moment happen and god damn, I started to believed it could happen, I really did and that was ANOTHER thrilling thing to experience. This is why people love to go to the movies. This is how I like to be entertained. But that was only at 95 minutes in and no way the happy ending could happen with 40 minutes left to go, right? I hear red lights and alarm bells going off and I am crapping my pants again.

 

Like Gravity, this is full of many butt clenching moments. But you are involved in the whole human adventure of it all. How Damon's character didn't crack and go butt ass crazy is beyond me. I would have cracked about day three eating nothing about potatoes.

The book the movie is based on was widely popular and I am glad I didn't read it. I love that I went into this one cold and enjoyed it all the more for my ignorance of the source material.

The soundtrack of Disco music and the jokes that come from that are well used. I would buy the soundtrack because I love many of those great songs of that era.

The science aspect of the movie also rang true. These were smart people who trusted other smart people to be giving them the correct information they needed to make these crucial life and death decisions. It's great to watch a movie that doesn't have to be explaining everything to the audience every five minutes. There is no filler here and for 135 minutes I was riveted.

This is a nice message movie about getting through a really tough time by using your head, keeping your cool, using team work (old school AMERICAN teamwork - remember that?) and things will work out - in the Hollywood at least. Today that was good enough for me.