Ridley Scott this time has adapted Andy Weir’s best-selling novel of the same name, which detailed a stranded astronaut’s story to survive on Mars with the resources he has and botany skills to boot. Scripted by Drew Goddard of The Cabin in the Woods fame and starring Matt Damon in the central role of Mark Watney. All of this has come together to form one of Ridley Scott’s best films for some time; certainly at this point in time, his best film since American Gangster. The story goes that a space crew is stationed on Mars, there to explore the Acidalia Planitia plain as part of their expedition. A storm rages which prompts them to leave, but not before Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) is struck by a piece of a satellite antenna and is presumed dead by the crew. NASA gets wind of this and has a memorial service in his name, believing him to dead. Sure enough, Watney survives but is in risk of losing air. Having managed to make it to to the base, he comes to the realization that he is alone, with little food and contact with no-one. Therefore using a space log to update his activities, he plans to use his special botany skills and ingenuity to survive and make contact in the hope that he can somehow escape and reunite with his crew and Earth itself.
The film works on a number of levels. The cast themselves are part of an ensemble and all shine together in this film. From Matt Damon as our lead, a worn down but cocky and confident individual, who you all root for to make it back home in the long run, to Jessica Chastain as the ship’s commander Melissa Lewis, the authoritative and leading figure to her crew and all out disco music fan, to Chiwetel Ejiofor as NASA’s director of space missions who carries the burden on earth to bring Watney back safely, to Jeff Daniels director of NASA who is cautious and decisive to a fault, just to name a few. The film manages to be surprisingly funny even during the more sombre and dark moments and by no means is this film a comedy (as the Golden Globes believed it was…) nor is it out of place or sporadic, which is a credit to Drew Goddard’s script who possesses a successful track record of subtly blending drama and comedy together to great effect.
I think it is also credit to Ridley Scott, who doesn’t downplay or fight against the right tone for the film, but more flows with it – sometimes a script and Scott’s vision in the past would conflict disastrously – but here it’s lighting in a bottle. The steps Watney takes to survive, whether growing potatoes in a confined space of dirt and faeces by using leftover rocket fuel to produce hydrogen, or dismantling equipment and ship parts to make movement viable by direction of NASA scientists, is fascinating to watch, not just because you know what’s at stake but the level of humourous insight render any steps into dreariness, making it an awesome but reflective thrill ride of a film. Just watching the film blending all those successful elements together marks it as a successful rendition of the novel itself and offers surprises along the way.
This is certainly a film that isn’t there to make a grand, ultimate statement nor is it trying to be a deep, experience film like in the vein of 2001: a Space Odyssey or Interstellar but is just simply an entertaining enjoyable survival story that has its moments of reflection and more than enough time for you spend time with Watney on his journey to survive and also be in the company of a great cast to boot. To the power of the botanist and film director, this is definitely one of his best outings and reaffirms Ridley Scott as one of cinema’s greatest storytellers.
5/5
Filmlife 