Ridley Scott’s The Martian

[One]

The book does do a much better job of conveying both the timescale and the complexity of the problems he's solving, but it's hard to show that in the film without totally losing the audience.

There were a couple of disasters left out from the film and I thought that made it way more believable (if a little less interesting). The capture of Mark was a bit silly and in the book the blowing of the airlock was enough to reduce the closing speed.

I did like the ending though. That bit of closure was something I thought was missing from the book. Knowing that Mark goes on to continue his work with NASA etc.

As to Sean Bean's casting. His character is not a 'rocket scientist', he's a crew administrator. Basically a manager that looks out for the rights of all crew members and understands the psychology of people on these missions. For someone to have experience in that they're likely to be an ex-military type. His resignation is not called for in the book though, him and Teddy have a discussion where he basically knows there's no proof and they want to keep the 'mutiny' a secret so he knows he can't be done for it or there'll be questions.

 

[Uncle Petey]

I found it enjoyable enough and nicely shot.
The space stuff at the end was hilariously far fetched though

Agree with those who say that you never really felt like he was in real peril.
Oh, and Sean Bean staying quiet during the Lord of the Rings mention was a nice touch.

 

[One]

In the book when the airlock blew he was quite screwed. His visor was screwed and the airlock was slowly leaking. He had to cut the arm off his suit so he had enough material to seal both his visor and the airlock. This meant he had to do an EVA in a one armed suit with a big patch over most of his visor and try to find one of the spare EVA suits in the HAB before returning to the safety of the rover.

There were a number of points in the book where you just assume it's game over, I suppose in the film it's harder to portray that. Not to mention three big events that were completely missed out.

The problem the film has compared to the book is the ease in which the science can be explained. In the book you're exposed to the difference between between how an EVA suit works and how the HAB works. It's explained why there are the various communications differences between the HAB/Rover/MAV/Hermes/Earth. It's explained why he still has water after the HAB blows.

Having read a number of books now that have become films or TV shows I have come to the realisation that it's obviously impossible to do everything in teh same detail or your film just becomes either super long or essentially an audiobook.

I think this translation from page to screen worked very well (in part due to the narration of the logs I suppose), and I thought apart from actually going through with the iron man plan it was very faithful and didn't cut too much out. It was well acted, cast and shot. I made a mental note that Kate Mara should play Johansson, and she did lol.

 

[platypus]

I just watched this, and I have to say, I really, really enjoyed it. Didn't know what to expect, it wasn't too much of a generic run of the mill disaster movie - ok he had some disasters along the way but it wasn't one of those boring films where something goes wrong at every possible step. It was entertaining and humourous in places, and ok the ending was a little contrived and a little over the top hollywood but I felt by that stage since I knew what was coming it didn't matter that much.

Yep. Really enjoyed it.

 

[Glaucus]

Looks like there's a whole load if cut scenes, extras and extended on the blueray and digital release. Wonder if that's all digital releases or a specific one?

 

[mattcrane]

In the book when the airlock blew he was quite screwed. His visor was screwed and the airlock was slowly leaking.

One of my favorite bits in the book "So either its leaking or there are snakes in here, either way I am in trouble"

 

[Glaucus]

In the book they have so much more time to explain why things break down.

Some of the complaints in this thread, is it's one disaster after another.
If it was real life, it would likely be the same but he die. Things like the air lock weren't designed to handle that many pressure cycles causing metal fatigue.

 

[Raymond Lin]

A book and film are completely different medium and needs to be tackled in different ways. The key is to capture the essence of the source material, and this film has done that in spades.

 

[easyrider]

A book and film are completely different medium and needs to be tackled in different ways. The key is to capture the essence of the source material, and this film has done that in spades.

Have you read the book?

 

[Glaucus]

A book and film are completely different medium and needs to be tackled in different ways. The key is to capture the essence of the source material, and this film has done that in spades.

I agree, I think they've done a great job of getting the book over in such a short time frame.
It'll be one of a handful of films I'll actually purchase, I want the extended version in digital.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Have you read the book?

Audiobook.

 

[StevieP]

I've yet to find an instance whereby a film of a book is better than (or as good as) the book!

In my option though, this film does a decent enough job of portraying the events in a sensible manner! Yes there were a couple of fairly big events that the film missed but I wouldn't say they harmed the experience too much!

I'd say that the biggest loss from the book (audiobook ) was portraying the volume of science that Mark used to keep himself alive - came across far better in the book imo!

 

[n111ck]

Why did this win the Golden Globe for best comedy / musical?