Ridley Scott’s The Martian

I certainly enjoyed the film, probably give it a strong 7.5-8/10. Wouldn't rave about it like a lot of people some to be doing with all these 10/10 everywhere though :P
 
Raymond Lin said:
for the audience and pacing of a movie (as opposed to a book), Watney has already overcome enough challenges and obstacles by that point of the movie and the movie is ready for the last Act, which is the space rescue. To add another obstacle and setback would severely jeopardise the pacing, and ultimately adding nothing more to the story.
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I dont think it showed much of his struggle though. It obviously showed food issues as he looses a lot of weight....but it could have added one or two lines to show more things he had to overcome.

like when the HAB was full of Hydrogen making water and he spent 2-3 SOL's in the rover thinking about what he's going to do next and hoping it doesnt blow up.

or going mental in small confined spaces on his trip to pathfinder.
or even on his mega journey with soft sand and dust storm.
or when they are huging in Hermes'...a line to say he think he broke some ribs in the ascent.

Just one or two sentences on his recordings would have added a bit more depth.

Dont get me wrong, I loved it and will pay when it's released but im only giving it 8/10.
book 10/10.
 
Tickets booked for this evening. Read the book a couple of months back and literally cannot wait to get into the cinema. If it's half as good as the book it will be a great film.
 
Watched this last night. It was great 8.5/10

The only thing meant it wasn't a 9 is that I think Watney should have been more sarcastic – it was meant to be his coping mechanism, so I feel he should have 'coped' more. Also I felt the ending was too hollywood – I mean it is a bit hollywood in the book (and probably the worst part of the book for it) but they obviously felt a need to have a 'proper' space bit at the end.
 
macmodder said:
Watched this last night. It was great 8.5/10

The only thing meant it wasn't a 9 is that I think Watney should have been more sarcastic – it was meant to be his coping mechanism, so I feel he should have 'coped' more. Also I felt the ending was too hollywood – I mean it is a bit hollywood in the book (and probably the worst part of the book for it) but they obviously felt a need to have a 'proper' space bit at the end.
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I agree with you on the ending.
Enjoyable watch, but the ending I've seen a hundred times before.
 
Off to watch this in 3D tomorrow, not a fan of 3d generally but only showing that fits with our times to watch this followed by Everest. Both over 2 hours though so it's going to be numb bum towards the end.
 
Finally got to see it the other night.

Really enjoyable and highly recommended. Friends didn't know what to expect and loved it (I told them to read the book too)

Its a shame they didn't include more of his gallows humour, pirate ninjas and other events like the storm, the long Rover journeys, the full HAB explosion etc... but I guess for a 2hr 30min film they did extremely well

Re-reading the book again now...
 
Just back from seeing this. Very good. Obviously way stripped down from the book and they missed a lot out, but hey, that's film adaptations of books. Matt Damon was excellent, it looked great, it was funny, the soundtrack was good with some very funny choices.
 
Spit said:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/73331

A bit about the science.
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Bit odd how he gets a couple of things wrong despite his access to nasa.

There's a company actually developing skin suits for mars, which is basically a tight fitting one piece.
http://news.mit.edu/2014/second-skin-spacesuits-0918

And he says helps not sure if you could grow in martian soil, nasa has grown successfully in martian soil stimulant.
http://www.popsci.com/article/technology/crops-grow-fake-moon-and-mars-soil
 
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7/10 for me. If you read the book there's some massive holes in the story and deviations from the book which ruined it for me, particularly the ending.

It's not a bad film but if you've read the story then you'll know how bad it is.

For example when he is lying down next to the solar panels which have a 13 hour recharge he wouldn't have the Oxygen to do this

Also, at the end of the film, where he lets the oxygen out of the suit - the entire reason they blew the VAL was to allow them to get him so he shouldn't have needed to do this - they also changed it from two guys who were arguing about whether they should be untethered to the Captain floating off in a chair - which would have made the pull back horrendous



M.
 
Yeah, we should be saying that the film is 80 percent as good as the book and that's about 40 percent better than most other movies manage when based on a book. Getting most of the way there is a win as far as Hollywood goes.
 
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If the movie follows the book for the letter it will be:-

1 - way too long
2 - you'll be bored and lose interest because it is way too long
3 - you will be annoyed of the constant repeat problems and obstacles he has to overcome, it gets tedious and after the 15th one you'll think "We get it already, Mars is trying to kill him, get on with the next chapter!"
4 - you will be complaining it is way too long

Because you'll be bored, that automatically equate bad movie in my book. A book's first job is to entertain and hold my attention. The Martian, the movie, in its current form does exactly that, it entertains. It's a great movie. Nitpicking how close it sticks or not sticks to the book is unfair.

Imagine for a second, instead of the current 90 mins of a film on how he overcame obstacles, and 30 mins of other stuff with other actors. Now we have 4 hours of that, 1 of them just watch him drive in the Rover, an hour of him fixing various machines, 30 mins of him moving rocks.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Once you get the point across, you move on.
 
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Certainly one of the best films I've seen in a very long time. It was the first I've watched in 3D as well, and I have to say it was very well used and impressive but no in any way distracting from the actual story.

I didn't actually feel annoyed by having to pay Odeon nearly £14 to sit on one of their less than great chairs for 2 hours. Which does make a change.
 
just watched it -


really good film to book conversion, dropped the extra bits, kept the main story (far more plot points stayed in than i expected)


the driving to the mav scenes are really nicely done

only disappointment was
the last segment in the book about people saving each other not making it in

good work RS/matt DAMON!
 
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