I saw The Martian, oh, I don’t know, two months after it came out. In theaters. Yep, still there. Outlasted movies to be released after it, Spectre among them, by well over a couple of weeks.
Needless to say, it’s been a box office hit. It deserves that.
I’m writing this after it’s won a Golden Globe for best picture and is now leading the Oscar nominations, best picture included. I’d be lying if I said I expected those, but sure. It’s really good.
It’s the newest of famed director Ridley Scott’s movies, all of which have a similar vibe in direction and production. But I don’t really care, as others have expressed. I like his style. And he’s done really well with his adaptation of Andy Weir’s science-fiction novel of survival and wit with the same name. It’s very clever, very quick, and (at least seemingly) intuitive enough for a science-fiction movie, even when it devolves into “Because science!” moments.
But Matt Damon, man. It’s his movie. So many times I’ve been awed at the purely likeable characters he brings. A good actor knows to become someone who we can understand. Damon’s a really good one in assuming roles where he lets us know the understanding goes both ways. He’s a real people person. Good for him for taking the reins of this film.
And a good thing it is that he’s healthy screen company. Here he plays astronaut Mark Watney, stranded on Mars (the planet) by his NASA crew, including the cast of Jessica Chastain, Michael Pena, and Kate Mara, after a nasty storm rolls through. For lasting portions of the movie, he’s all we see, along the vein of other survivalist stories like Castaway.
The Martian, though, is one film I’d recommend on Friday Fun Night. It cuts down on the grimness and lends a little bit more charm to its story. It’s not like Damon has to eat his own foot or anything. He’s left with some spare materials in his space station, some food rations, whatever he can find. It’s not much, but he’s a scientist, and the source of what makes this movie fun to watch is how he uses his McGyver skills to throw gadgets together.
There’s a storyline back on Earth. Sean Bean, Jeff Daniels, and Chiwetel Ejiofor all play NASA officials working to get their astronaut back home. This, while seeming like a drag, plays nicely with Watney’s story back on Mars, with one reason for the payoff: establishment. A smartly rearranged script from Drew Goddard doesn’t leave a scene until it gets its job done and doesn’t come back to it before its partner sends another job back its way.
The fact that this movie’s gotten to be a revenue juggernaut is a good sign. Where marketing campaigns usually look to compete with as many clips of car chases and explosions as they can muster, The Martian has only its dialogue and, more appropriately, its monologue (Watney keeps a webcam for a digital diary) to work with. It’s true that the visualization of the red planet is beautiful in its imaging, but do moviegoers looking for thrill pay attention to effects? It’s all pacing for them, how much is packed into what amount of space. You can certainly appreciate the design in this film, but it’s subtle. The Martian does more simmering than flurrying. You might mistake the characters for being cool-headed in dire situations.
But they’re nervous. Watney can be strained to a greater extent, as we need the protagonist of a fun movie to be. But there’s a lot more under the surface of a few winks. We have a lot of strong actors in this film that were really good sports about putting their hearts into it. The characters don’t know what they’ll do next, and neither do we. There’s danger, but there isn’t panic. In other words, it’s actually interesting.
I’m convinced that Matt Damon is one of the strongest well-known actors around. He can be a support (Saving Private Ryan) as much as he can a leader (the Bourne series). I’ll watch The Martian again just for his performance. His is one that people will take with them, not because they’ll think he needs the attention but because they’ll know he deserves it.
