Movie Review: “The Martian” Is Matt Damon’s Showpiece

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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.

Although he’s spent most of his time the past few decades in a producer’s role, Ridley Scott’s films as a director have always held a harsh, dismal view of the world and what humanity makes of it. “The Martian” flips the script with a hopeful feel, and lots of laughs provided by Matt Damon’s stranded astronaut Mark Watney.

The Ares I project establishes the first mission to Mars. Headed by savvy mission commander Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain) and supported by a group of crack scientists and astronauts, the team establishes a base on the Red Planet and begins to study how humans could live there. When a massive sandstorm overtakes their base, the group is forced to leave before their escape rocket, and upright, single-stage rocket designed to get them to the mother ship orbiting Mars, tips over and strands them. Everyone makes it aboard, except Watley, who’s impaled by the cord from a communications disk which destroys his bio-metrics readout. Since Commander Lewis can’t find him in the storm, and his bio-metrics say he’s dead, the team leaves him behind and heads home to Earth. Watley wakes up the next day stranded with no way to contact NASA and let them know he’s alive.

Let’s start by saying this is Matt Damon’s film, and he’s never been better. So much of the focus lies in Watley’s ability to creatively find ways to survive in Mars’ harsh environment. Damon takes this character and turns him into a funny, likable hero. While he’s an extraordinary man doing extraordinary things, he becomes an everyman simply trying to survive. It’s the most compelling man vs. nature conflict since Tom Hanks started talking to a volleyball in “Castaway”. Damon finds the perfect balance between humor and the stress to go along with truly understanding his situation. He knows he’s probably going to die, and he gets frustrated, but Watley’s sense of humor never wavers. The charm this characteristic brings to Damon’s performance keeps the audience engaged while lots of technical stuff about orbits and gravitational trajectories and such fly around the screen.

The supporting cast reads like a who’s who of everybody who didn’t get cast in “Black Mass”. Jeff Daniels extends his “Newsroom” personae as he plays NASA Director Teddy Sanders. He and the NASA cast are great, but they really do feel like a space version of “Newsroom” at times. Chewetel Ojiofor steps in as Head of Mars Missions Vincent Kapoor. Kristen Wiig plays it straight as NASA spokesperson Annie Montrose. Sean Bean stands out as the astronaut liaison who makes a career ending decision. Mackenzie Davis gives it some nerd power from the control room as Mindy Park. One of the most interesting performances comes from TV veteran Donald Glover, who plays clever, but socially clueless, mathematician Rich Purnell. The other astronauts include Sebastian Stan, Kate Mara, Michael Pena, and Aksel Hennie. Unfortunately, the material is too short for all that talent. Every character has his or her moments, but many of these talents remain underutilized.

Director Ridley Scott remains at the top of his game. What he’s put together works so seamlessly and naturally, you forget Watley is trapped on Mars instead of some burnt out landscape in Death Valley, but this is a good thing. He takes an imaginative approach and adds enough real science that it feels like a real, tangible scenario. I know most of the science and ideas came from Andy Weir’s original novel. What Scott contributes, however, is a visual feast in the form of the Martian landscape, based on actual photographs and mapping satellites. I don’t know how accurate his vision is, but it certainly vibrates with authenticity. This level of world building is difficult at best. He doesn’t let his film brood. It has fun until the tension has to rise. The last 20-25 minutes become taut with suspense and emotion. In the end, he leaves us catching our breath just as we should at the end of a great ride.

This summer has given us two great popcorn action movies in “Jurassic World” and “The Martian.” I’ll let you decide which one you liked best, but I’ll take “The Martian” because of Matt Damon’s performance and its ability to take a subject on everyone’s mind, a manned mission to Mars, and make it look so plausible. Most of all, it was a lot of fun to watch.

In theaters now