The Martian (Ridley Scott)

I found it perfectly enjoyable and engaging, and in some ways a nice change of pace from standard blockbuster fare. But it lacked that genuine spark, and suffered from trying to be many things for many people.

It sure moves along at a heady pace, which is probably the right one for a film that wants to throw lots of scientific jargon, porn and/or mumbo jumbo at you. To get into nitpicking is, as ever, an exercise in utmost futility - basically, it's as roughly realistic sci-fi (emphasis on the sci) as one could expect from a big budget effort like this. Holes and inaccuracies? Yeah, probably, but aside from the actual attention to detail the overall sense of 'w00t science!' is an encouraging and cheery one. It borders on an infomercial for NASA throughout, and the journal entries (and much of the mission control stuff) amounts to little more than glorified exposition, but again the film's enthusiasm for space travel is infectious. Where it sometimes stumbles is finding the fine line between accessibility and complexity, and the film's generally broad tone and humour at times come across as a compromise in trying to communicate complex ideas in a Hollywood blockbuster. It does try, to be fair, and if it encourages even a small percentage of audience members to explore some of the concepts introduced within than that's a job well done.

The sheer amount of ground to cover (literally and figuratively) results in a film that is sometimes lacking. In prioritising the basic mechanics of the plot above all else, it can feel like a relentless assault of stuff happening with plenty glossed over - not just in scientific terms, but in character and narrative terms too. The whole thing feels weirdly mechanical, going through the motions towards its inevitable ending, with very little in the way of danger, uncertainty or psychological / emotional substance. It's probably Watney's own experiences that suffer most in that respect - while we spend plenty of time with him and witness his ingenuity, at times it feels like maybe a fortnight has passed for him. Now long periods of time are a very difficult thing to portray effective, especially with so much to get through. Yet the film for the most part dancing around the psychological and physical fatigue experienced by the protagonist (and having him wisecrackin' even in the most perilous of circumstances) only amplifies the sense that everything feels rather less grand and grueling than it should be.

It doesn't help either that Scott's filmmaking is rather pedestrian. Despite an opening few minutes and titles pleasing reminiscent of Alien both in visual and musical terms, again there's a lack of cinematic grandeur and awe here (whatever about the rest of the film, it's something Interstellar ****ing nailed). That works in parts, when the focus is on a smaller scale and a more muted approach actually benefits that intimacy, but there's disappointingly little in the way of cinematic majesty to set the senses a flutter. And he also has a tendency to fall back on derivative storytelling techniques - the anxious crowds watching across the world, the soaring score whenever there's a triumph, and various other tricks that feel like they've been copied and pasted from other films without much thought.

The more I think about it, the more I find to be frustrated with. Yet the film does overall work, if mostly down to the intrigue of the premise and our curiosity to see how it all plays out. As a piece of cinema there's not a whole lot to write home about, but as a piece of speculative fiction it's plenty intriguing. And it's not every big budget film that has exciting dramatic moments such as Donald Glover using a super computer to test some convoluted mathematical predictions, or taking the time to reflect on the potential benefits and drawback of co-operation between American and Chinese space agencies. Which, honestly, is something.