As I’m ready to watch “The Walk” tomorrow, I just thought here to pen something about the movie ‘The Martian’ which I saw last week. The reason I mentioned ‘The Walk’ here is the kind of filmmaking technologies we are into with the likes of RealD projection (3D) and IMAX 3D. While I watched ‘The Martian’ in 3D, a friend of mine recommended me to watch ‘The Walk’ only in IMAX 3D. I’ll share my experience on that later this weekend.
Coming back to Ridley Scott’s ‘The Martian’, let me say that we have already watched Damon in adventurous thrill acts many times, but this time it is science-fiction, and that too to the closest of actual science. The moment director Scott cast Matt Damon in the lead, many of the ardent fans of his work were sure that he was going to deliver yet another classic project and not just an ambitious one.
‘The Martian’ is probably the best example of how we can make our sci-fi thriller more realistic than just a regular space drama. We have already watched this earlier in ‘Gravity’ as well as in ‘Interstellar‘. Be it futuristic dystopia or more fictional elements away from reality, at least big studios are now willing to make films that tend to redefine the sci-fi genre.
Based on Andy Weir’s 2011 hit sci-fi survival novel of the same name, Damon here plays an astronaut Mark Watney stranded on Mars when a violent storm hits him and the rest of his crew members thought him dead and hence left the Red Planet. But here is a survival saga when the protagonist Watney says: “I’m going to have to science the shit out of this.”
It’s hard to write anything about ‘The Martian’ without giving a few spoilers. The trailer of the film is very much straightforward as a NASA mission is cut short because of a storm and how Watney does science to survive on a planet until his colleagues back home learn he is still alive and try to launch a new mission to bring him home.
Then it all boils down to Matt Damon and his charismatic presence. He has been exceptionally good in a few of his earlier releases, and in this one, he very well depicted the life of a lonely person far beyond our home planet but still determined to do the unthinkable in order to survive.
As far as effects are concerned, I believe in a slow pace movie there should be more 3D effects when we are in space. Honestly, I have not read the book. So not sure about the things the filmmakers omit here, but whatever at least this is enough for a feature-length movie.
However, if there is anything I think of which is inspiring in this movie is the fact that it allows us to dream and explore things beyond earth. The cinematic experience in ‘The Martian’ makes us believe that any such near-future space exploration is achievable while sending a message to everyone that science is indeed tough.
Where to watch The Martian (2015)
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