The Martian (Ridley Scott)

Decuc500

Arghus wrote: »

But you should check out his video review for The Martian - God Love him, he looks like he hasn’t smiled in at least a decade. It visibly pains him to give the film a “cautious” recommendation - despite him saying that it was engaging, entertaining and fun throughout. Jesus- what does it take sometimes?

I enjoyed reading your thoughts on the film. Spot on with Ms Long! I like Clarke's reviews most of the time but he does have a certain snobbishness. The Martian has mostly been getting good but reserved reviews from critics. It's like they can't commit to certain crowd pleasing films no matter how well they work on that level.

Fysh

Decuc500 wrote: »

I enjoyed reading your thoughts on the film. Spot on with Ms Long! I like Clarke's reviews most of the time but he does have a certain snobbishness. The Martian has mostly been getting good but reserved reviews from critics. It's like they can't commit to certain crowd pleasing films no matter how well they work on that level.

I've found Clarke's reviews mostly pretty good for a long while, but for whatever reason he seems to be losing the run of himself as far as sci-fi goes. I can't imagine any frame of reference other than "slavish Star Trek fanboy" whereby the drek that was Star Trek Into Darkness gets five stars while The Martian gets three. I mean, not being particularly impressed by the Martian? Fair enough - it was pretty much what I hoped for, given the constraint of "massive budget vs hard scifi premise". But there is no universe in which the flaws of Into Darkness are lesser than the flaws of The Martian, IMO.

But, hey, film criticism. At least with Clarke you mostly get a sense of consistency in terms of why he appreciates a film, which is already better than many.

flazio

Mickeroo wrote: »

When Troy explained his plan and they

codenamed themselves the council of Elrond I was waiting for Bean to say "One does not simply send a ship back to Mars" or something.

Missed opportunity.

I was expecting him to say "I know, I was there. "

Hyzepher

I liked the film a lot but having the final ship already on Mars for the next expedition was a little far fetched considering the near fate of the last one. It's just suppose to sit there for years untouched when their own hardly made it a wet weekend before they had to abandon the mission?

Sad Professor

Nervous Wreck wrote: »

All these comparisons are nuts; it's very obviously and openly influenced by Apollo 13, far more than Interstellar, 2001, or any of the like.

Yeah, I think Weir cited Apollo 13 as the main influence for the book. I haven’t read the book, but the film reminded me of Apollo 13 as well, particularly the emphasis on problem solving.

Gravity and Interstellar and other recent sci-fi feel like they were influences as well, but only to the extent that Scott was responding to them. The tone of The Martian feels like it might have been a reaction to the seriousness of Cuarón and Nolan’s films, for example. Scott has done this throughout his career to films by his contemporaries that he admired. Gladiator was his response to Braveheart, Black Hawk Down to Saving Private Ryan, The Counsellor to No Country for Old Men, and so on.

Technocentral

Hyzepher wrote: »

I liked the film a lot but having the final ship already on Mars for the next expedition was a little far fetched considering the near fate of the last one. It's just suppose to sit there for years untouched when their own hardly made it a wet weekend before they had to abandon the mission?

It was heavier so it wouldn't blow over in those gales though.

quickbeam

Mickeroo wrote: »

When Troy explained his plan and they

codenamed themselves the council of Elrond I was waiting for Bean to say "One does not simply send a ship back to Mars" or something.

Missed opportunity.

Hee, hee! I love that scene. But I'm glad they left the line unsaid. That'd be ramming the point home a bit too much. They knew we, the audience, were thinking it and that was enough.

Technocentral

One thing though, Bean is an atrocious "actor", why was he giving a big role, he's useless?

Cookie_Monster

Hyzepher wrote: »

I liked the film a lot but having the final ship already on Mars for the next expedition was a little far fetched considering the near fate of the last one. It's just suppose to sit there for years untouched when their own hardly made it a wet weekend before they had to abandon the mission?

The initial storm is a plot device and not accurate, but I think it would be fair to say it would be one of those once in a thousand year super storm type events that came out of nowhere. Whereas normal mars weather would have no impact on the landers or equipment.

Technocentral wrote: »

It was heavier so it wouldn't blow over in those gales though.

why was it heavier? It was still in the process of making fuel wheres MAV3 was finished and should be heavier

eeguy

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

why was it heavier? It was still in the process of making fuel wheres MAV3 was finished and should be heavier

It's was explained that the ship as sent years in advance because it takes 18 months to pull the CO2 out of the atmosphere.

Also the second MAV was 3200km away so it wouldn't be affected by the storm, which was only a plot device.

Technocentral

Cookie_Monster wrote:

why was it heavier? It was still in the process of making fuel wheres MAV3 was finished and should be heavier

I'm joking.

Cookie_Monster

eeguy wrote: »

It's was explained that the ship as sent years in advance because it takes 18 months to pull the CO2 out of the atmosphere.

my point exactly

Technocentral wrote: »

I'm joking.

oh right

Rubber_Soul

quickbeam wrote: »

Hee, hee! I love that scene. But I'm glad they left the line unsaid. That'd be ramming the point home a bit too much. They knew we, the audience, were thinking it and that was enough.

That scene actually sailed right over my head until I read this thread. I are SMRT.

alex.middleton

great film gonna read the book now

petethedrummer

I really did not like it but I would recommend it for 8-14 year olds. It's rated 12A so it was probably right on the money.

To me it had the feel of some sort of clunky propaganda movie. As if the director had been tasked with getting the viewing public to embrace manned flight to Mars and peace with the Chinese.

As the crew were deliberating over whether to go back for Matt Damon or not, inside my head I was screaming at them to go home. An extra 539 days for them added on another 35 minutes of viewing time for me.

But mostly I'm disappointed there wasn't an actual martian in it.

Technocentral

petethedrummer wrote:

I really did not like it but I would recommend it for 8-14 year olds. It's rated 12A so it was probably right on the money.

I assume you're not a sci fi fan so, if you are what recent non fantasy sci fi films would you rate above it?

biko

In all a great film.

syklops

Sad Professor wrote: »

Yeah, I think Weir cited Apollo 13 as the main influence for the book. I haven’t read the book, but the film reminded me of Apollo 13 as well, particularly the emphasis on problem solving.

After I finished the book I recommended it to my Dad whose a chemist and amateur botanist. He said he really loved the bit in the book where:

Watney informs NASA that theres a piece of equipment he needs help fixing and they get a load of engineers together to help figure out how to fix it Apollo 13 style, with only the stuff he has, and they send a message back to him a few days later saying they had figured it out and Watney goes "Yeah nevermind, I fixed it with duck tape"

Duggy747

Thoroughly enjoyed it, a lot more than Gravity and Interstellar, and the mostly grounded science gave it a great boost in entertainment.

Both different films, Gravity had a sloppy unremarkable story but was a technical marvel to watch and Interstellar had a greater overall awe factor that was great to see on the big screen but had a terribly hokey story about "Love" amongst it's other problems that left a sour taste for me.

When it comes to a space flick, The Martian was one of best I've seen in the past few years and was lower on the cheese and syrup factor that usually comes dolloped with these kind of films. It was nice to see a big-budget sci-fi film with which space wasn't a horror show that felt the need to kill crew members off one-by-one to hammer home the point that the universe is a harsh mistress, a lot of it is played for laughs to break the tone up which benefits it rather than it being coated in constant steely seriousness.

I have to disagree that it lacked awe moments, it certainly didn't have striking visual cues or moments but instead little things like Damon talking about how he's the 1st person to do seemingly benign things on the planet like walking up a hill. THAT is a lot more awe-inspiring and thought-provoking to me than visuals of a planet that's not our own (which are still cool to see)

Would love to see a director's cut because I happily would've watched more of Damon working and narrating about his survival on Mars while he communicated with NASA where they were telling him what he should be doing.

TheDoc

Saw it Saturday. Absolutely loved it, genuinely brilliant and the GF thought it was great as well, and it's been an epic struggle trying to get her to watch Interstellar again

Knew nothing about it other then a book exists, so not sure how it fared for people who read the book, but I genuinely loved it.

Earthhorse

Saw this during the week and thought it was quite pedestrian. One for people who enjoy the science bit of sci fi films. The rest of it feels underdeveloped.

snubbleste

Overhyped.
The

Abba song threw me completely off.

Zubeneschamali

snubbleste wrote: »

Overhyped.
The

Abba song threw me completely off.

That is not a spoiler in any shape or form.

And folks annoyed by the 70s music in the soundtrack are very sensitive souls. The whole point is that it is horrible stuff.

irishfeen

Seen this last night and thought it was very good - not the greatest film ever but well worth a watch.

Thought Matt Damon was excellent and I'm not his biggest fan - graphics and landscape views were exceptional.

8/10 for me!

PS. I thought the 70s music references were absolutely hilarious at times

irishfeen

The Martian Soundtrack - some truly awful stuff ...

HAPPY DAYS THEME
TURN THE BEAT AROUND (LOVE TO HEAR PERCUSSION)
HOT STUFF
ROCK THE BOAT
DON'T LEAVE ME THIS WAY
STARMAN
WATERLOO
LOVE TRAIN
I WILL SURVIVE

FunLover18

When I heard the first notes of 'I Will Survive' over the end credits, for a fraction of a second I thought it was Monty Python's Galaxy Song.

Mickeroo

I'll not hear a bad word said about Starman, it's the only song that wasn't from the commander's collection I reckon

snubbleste

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

That is not a spoiler in any shape or form.
And folks annoyed by the 70s music in the soundtrack are very sensitive souls. The whole point is that it is horrible stuff.

It threw me off. I was automatically transported to Muriel's Wedding.

Goldstein

I've purposely not read anything in this thread for months and I'm not going to start now as it undoubtedly contains moaning from sados and people that don't get real science fiction but i'll say one thing from an old cynic:

This was a f~cking triumph.

syklops

Goldstein wrote: »

I've purposely not read anything in this thread for months and I'm not going to start now as it undoubtedly contains moaning from sados and people that don't get real science fiction but i'll say one thing from an old cynic:

This was a f~cking triumph.

The thread is mostly praise with only a couple of sados moaning about it.