The Martian – Review (2015)

About – When astronauts leave mars due to a terrifying storm, there is Mark Watney (Matt Damon) left behind, thought to be dead. Has to survive on the red planet alone with only a few supplies left. Helping him along with his own witty humor and brilliant knowledge, trying to get himself back to earth.

Matt Damon’s leading role was immense, he really took a stand in The Martian and made it his own. Matt didn’t hesitate on taking this role due to him already working in Interstellar, he had a good idea on how he was going to play with lead role having already been in outer space characters before. Matt Damon recently got a message from the people working at NASA telling him, his character and him as a person really brought out the fun and joy working for an organization like that. Matt Damon took the compliment and thanked the men and women that gave him this message saying it was a privilege for him to receive this from the guys themselves. Even from that little message from the big guys themselves shows how good this leading role was from Matt Damon.

The soundtrack made it more realistic, with songs from the 1980’s like ‘Starman’ by David Bowie and ‘Waterloo’ by ABBA. This type of music being played made the film very realist, having that small element of classic “80’s songs, makes Martian that more amazing due to the hilarious way the songs were put into shot. Don’t get me wrong this type of music isn’t for everyone but everyone knows these songs and all you can do within Martian is laugh and give yourself a little grin when they are been played. It works superbly as well on how it all fits in together with that natural flow of non-diogetic sound and imagery.

The Martian brought a new change to the ‘survival’ genre. With your typical survival film there is always the main character having that feeling of lost and never seeing his/her loved ones again. Whereas in The Martian, you did not have that type of element where Mark Watney has a wife and children. The film doesn’t need that feeling of sorrow from the audience, by bringing the family into it, you want him to come back to earth regardless of him having a family or not. You can see why Ridley Scott didn’t want to bring that element into the film, with the humour and geeky knowledge from Mark the family element wouldn’t of worked.

The Martian, isn’t your typical sci-fi, drama, adventure film. You have an amazing soundtrack which gives you this uplifting feeling. Great acting from Matt Damon. Not forgetting the nice twist on the whole survival genre. Superb film, can totally see why it’s on everyone’s top 5 films to watch by the new year.