[small]This was actually written before the Spectre review I just put up. Viola~[/small]
[HEADING=1]The Martian[/HEADING]
It seems as though there has been something of a seachange in terms of humanity's view of outer space - Mars in particular - recently. I think with the flyby of Pluto, discovery of water on Mars, the serious consideration of missions to Mars and such have all gone to make the red planet feel much closer than ever before in the public eye.
The Martian taps into this groundswell of interest - or at least acknowledgment - in the population very well, with snippy dialogue and lots of interesting scientific factoids going together to create a movie that serves as a good advertisement for NASA and similar space agencies, if not being quite so good as a bit of dramatic entertainment.
Indeed, the movie does somewhat seem like an endless advertisement for going to Mars. I don't think this was intended, at least I don't think it was anywhere near the top of a list of reasons to make the film, but that is how it comes across. The mission seems so plausible, the lifestyles on that distant iceball so spacious and apparently supportable, the hitherto forbiddingly harsh planetary conditions being translated to mere blips - at one point a suit puncture is blocked by congealed blood and the projectile itself, something strikingly reassuring, or at least thought provoking, after we have eternally equated suit failures in outer space with instant, sucking death.
A rub lies therein, of course, in that the movie is rather low on the drama and tension apart from a few certain instances, but I for one don't really mind this - I have long since stopped craving hardship and eternal loss in movies, after all, and unless it's done extremely well that kind of drama can be a bit of a drag for me, and I enjoyed this light hearted, often funny jaunt across the red surface.
I don't think I need to warn of spoilers here in saying that the movie plays a hell of a lot like an extended version of Apollo 13 - one of the few very greatest outer space movies - in that a series of hideous developments spontaneously combust around the protagonist, and he needs to MacGuyver his way to saftey. In the 90s classic these developments were based on a real life moon landing attempt which went horribly wrong but miraculously made it back to earth (oops, 20 year old spoiler alert) Things never get as serious as they were for Jim Lovell and co, as this film is replete - indeed laden - with internet humor, pop culture references and catchy tunes. If you have seen the scene in Good Will Hunting when Damon's character tricks a shrink by talking about the way 'gay disco' music pumps through his body and makes him want to be wild then you have already seen a snippet of this film.
This review has been a bit rambling and not very funny, and for that I apologize, but I won't try to force it and instead I'll wrap up this little summary and move on to the other factors of the film. This homage to Apollo 13 is a light hearted, feel-good, funny, and often scientifically interesting flick that couldn't really have been improved upon.
The acting by Damon is pretty good, but it feels to me as though he has just lifted pretty much every movement and turn of phrase in the whole film from internet memes or previous 'lone survivor' films. A derivative performance, then, but by no means an unbearable one: I feel that everything about this film is derivative and as such the acting and scripting is utterly appropriate. The other characters in the film are actually all pretty middling, with the possible exception of one or two of Damon's quickly absent crewmates, but the (thankfully ultimately lively) Sean Bean is a welcome addition who adds a different balance to the Mission Control posse purely by weight of his baggage as an actor.
The camera work, well, I mean whoever framed the animations and CGI did a decent job. We don't really get the feeling that Mars is a barren landscape for one reason or another, but in a way this is an interesting and engaging thing to ponder upon - it seems like if we were real quick we might just be able to run around naked up there when the satellites have long since passed over the horizon, and again this suggests a new outlook for extra-terrestrial explorations.
All in all this is a great film, go watch it, I think I'd happily buy a DVD and play it in the background on boring days - if only I still had days with enough empty time for me to want to chuck on a film~ It's like Apollo 13 for people who don't want to have a slow motion heart attack for two and a half hours.
8/10
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[HEADING=1]The Martian[/HEADING]
It seems as though there has been something of a seachange in terms of humanity's view of outer space - Mars in particular - recently. I think with the flyby of Pluto, discovery of water on Mars, the serious consideration of missions to Mars and such have all gone to make the red planet feel much closer than ever before in the public eye.
The Martian taps into this groundswell of interest - or at least acknowledgment - in the population very well, with snippy dialogue and lots of interesting scientific factoids going together to create a movie that serves as a good advertisement for NASA and similar space agencies, if not being quite so good as a bit of dramatic entertainment.
Indeed, the movie does somewhat seem like an endless advertisement for going to Mars. I don't think this was intended, at least I don't think it was anywhere near the top of a list of reasons to make the film, but that is how it comes across. The mission seems so plausible, the lifestyles on that distant iceball so spacious and apparently supportable, the hitherto forbiddingly harsh planetary conditions being translated to mere blips - at one point a suit puncture is blocked by congealed blood and the projectile itself, something strikingly reassuring, or at least thought provoking, after we have eternally equated suit failures in outer space with instant, sucking death.
A rub lies therein, of course, in that the movie is rather low on the drama and tension apart from a few certain instances, but I for one don't really mind this - I have long since stopped craving hardship and eternal loss in movies, after all, and unless it's done extremely well that kind of drama can be a bit of a drag for me, and I enjoyed this light hearted, often funny jaunt across the red surface.
I don't think I need to warn of spoilers here in saying that the movie plays a hell of a lot like an extended version of Apollo 13 - one of the few very greatest outer space movies - in that a series of hideous developments spontaneously combust around the protagonist, and he needs to MacGuyver his way to saftey. In the 90s classic these developments were based on a real life moon landing attempt which went horribly wrong but miraculously made it back to earth (oops, 20 year old spoiler alert) Things never get as serious as they were for Jim Lovell and co, as this film is replete - indeed laden - with internet humor, pop culture references and catchy tunes. If you have seen the scene in Good Will Hunting when Damon's character tricks a shrink by talking about the way 'gay disco' music pumps through his body and makes him want to be wild then you have already seen a snippet of this film.
This review has been a bit rambling and not very funny, and for that I apologize, but I won't try to force it and instead I'll wrap up this little summary and move on to the other factors of the film. This homage to Apollo 13 is a light hearted, feel-good, funny, and often scientifically interesting flick that couldn't really have been improved upon.
The acting by Damon is pretty good, but it feels to me as though he has just lifted pretty much every movement and turn of phrase in the whole film from internet memes or previous 'lone survivor' films. A derivative performance, then, but by no means an unbearable one: I feel that everything about this film is derivative and as such the acting and scripting is utterly appropriate. The other characters in the film are actually all pretty middling, with the possible exception of one or two of Damon's quickly absent crewmates, but the (thankfully ultimately lively) Sean Bean is a welcome addition who adds a different balance to the Mission Control posse purely by weight of his baggage as an actor.
The camera work, well, I mean whoever framed the animations and CGI did a decent job. We don't really get the feeling that Mars is a barren landscape for one reason or another, but in a way this is an interesting and engaging thing to ponder upon - it seems like if we were real quick we might just be able to run around naked up there when the satellites have long since passed over the horizon, and again this suggests a new outlook for extra-terrestrial explorations.
All in all this is a great film, go watch it, I think I'd happily buy a DVD and play it in the background on boring days - if only I still had days with enough empty time for me to want to chuck on a film~ It's like Apollo 13 for people who don't want to have a slow motion heart attack for two and a half hours.
8/10
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