Another rare case of the film telling the story better than the original novel. If I could do it all over again, I’d still read The Martian before the movie’s release because Andy Weir’s interview on Inquiring Minds made the book compelling. However, it was his first foray into writing so I’m hoping he’ll publish again and his sophomore work won’t be a race to finish versus quitting.
The synopsis is the same but director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Drew Goddard moved some things around. They begin with the astronauts gathering samples, checking their experiments, then NASA tells them to get into the habitat and eventually to evacuate back to the mothership Hermes. In the book they bailed after six days, the movie put it at 18; nothing major. Watney is left behind since an object hit him, took him out of visual and radio range, and his suit’s life signs flatline. Watney regains consciousness within a day to start his several-year odyssey of surviving until NASA can rescue him or the next landing happens.
I enjoyed how they managed to keep most of the Science intact: the potato garden, cracking water from hydrazine, using an RTG as a heater in the rover and communicating through a hexadecimal system until a faster method is developed. Oh yeah, plus the time delay in reception between Earth and Mars…so much for the speed of light. It was done without destroying the movie’s pace too. Even the most Science-averse viewer won’t be bored to death.
The casting was another triumph: Matt Damon was a good choice. Jeff Daniels as NASA’s director, Kirsten Wiig as the Media Director, Sean Bean on Flight Control, Chiwetel Ejiofor head of the Ares missions and Donald Glover as the astrophysicist were great. The astronauts were so-so, Jessica Chastain and Michael Peña have personalities, the other three, namely Kate Mara (the poor-man’s Kristen Stewart for mastering the “who farted” look) are just placeholders.
What I give Scott and Goddard a huge round of applause on was cutting out the novel’s boring last third. Watney’s drive across Mars, the dust storm and tiresome log entries were wearing on my patience. If I hadn’t promised myself Star Wars: Aftermath as a reward, I probably would’ve stopped, waited for the movie.
So go see this. It’s a very good take on what life on Mars would be, especially if you were stranded. There remain some inaccuracies but we learn more and more about our planetary neighbor every year.
Alamo Extras: A music video with an astronauts of sorts; An animated history of our obsession with Mars, narrated by Daws Butler; Trailer for Mission Mars starring Darren McGavin; Trailer for Abbott & Costello go to Mars; Trailer for Robinson Crusoe on Mars, the original inspiration for The Martian; Trailer for Angry Red Planet; Funny commercial for a product you’ll have to clink on the link to see; Spanish-speaking kids singing about outer space or something; Discussions about space stuff dubbing over footage of food-eating competitions; and a Swiss job-finding service commercial.