The Martian

Ridley Scott entered the last decade with a divisive set of films, even if I found plenty to enjoy with Prometheus and Exodus: Gods and Kings, but fortunately for him a crowd pleaser was on the way in 2015 with the Matt Damon sci-fi adventure, The Martian. Adapted from the popular book by Andy Weir that kept the drama engaging while never afraid to add touches of comedy, and with a screenplay by Drew Goddard, the ensemble film was a success at the time while earning plenty of award nominations but it seems The Martian isn't to everyone's tastes so I wanted to see how my second viewing would fair today. 

Set in 2035, a storm on Mars threatens the work of a small international team of astronauts which forces the crew to leave but they lose one of their team in the escape. Assuming their team member died in the storm, they set course for Earth but NASA soon find themselves in a dilemma when they see that their supposedly dead astronaut, Mark Watney (Matt Damon), is alive. Watney has to find away to survive on Mars for as long as possible while NASA try to figure out how they can rescue him before he runs out of resources. 

The Martian's tone is quite a departure from Scott's usual work when compared against his films from the last ten years which have been far more serious, and often quite bleak. Instead, we have a charismatic Damon keeping himself sane with entertaining video diaries and an optimistic depiction of how collaborating can help solve even the most daunting of problems. All of which gives the film a feel-good quality. This is best reflected in the soundtrack which takes songs from the likes of David Bowie to keep the mood light, while also neatly serving as reminder of the limited choices of music that Watney has available. 

On a technical and visual level, The Martian is amazing as I've come to expect when Scott is directing anything sci-fi or history related but the heart of the film is kept alive by a great performance from Matt Damon who spends much of the film acting alone. The supporting cast is also rich with talented names such as Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejifor, Jeff Daniels, Benedict Wong, Sean Bean and Kristen Wig who all manage to keep the Earth scenes fun and engaging where is this film dividing fans? My only quibble would be with some of the more cartoonish comedic moments (Donald Glover trying to imitate his Community co-star Danny Pudi comes to mind) and might have been where some of the 141 minutes in its running time could have been trimmed. 

The schmaltzy humour might still grate on some but this type of grand ensemble style of film is not something that comes around too often or is something I'd expect from Scott. The Martian is an otherwise a very fine and entertaining experience that is easy to watch, and easy to recommend.