Ridley Scott really needed a win. Like, really needed a win. It was borderline desperate, but he evaded that by his name still being (mostly) in good standing with the general public. When you direct Alien, Blade Runner, Black Hawk Down, and Gladiator you're given a LOT of leverage when you mass produce piles of shit for over a decade. This is unlike M. Night Shyamalan who desperately needed a win with The Visit. You can't skate by with The Sixth Sense when you directed The Last Airbender. But seriously, Ridley Scott has legitimately not made a good movie since 2003 as most people have not realized. 2003 was Matchstick Men but since then it's been a slew of promises that were never kept like Kingdom of Heaven, Body of Lies, Robin Hood, The Counselor, and terribly awful Prometheus, which I'll agree looks beautiful, but is a solid gold, shiny turd of a film. So, Scott truly needed a win with The Martian. And not only does he succeed in making a fantastic movie, his good name will continue to shine and he's now allowed to make another decade worth of crap Prometheus sequels. Let's be clear: The Martian is a phenomenal film. This is the reason that people go to the movies. It's great science-fiction, it's thrilling drama, it's hilarious comedy... it's the reason people fall in love with the movies.
The story follows Mark Watney and a team of astronauts as they're working on Mars. The weather goes sour, the mission ends early, and Watney is sent flying in the abyss of Mars presumed dead. The crew take off leaving Watney behind. However, Watney survived. But, there won't be a manned mission to reach Mars for another four years. So, he has to figure out a way to live on Mars without anything going wrong and/or starving to death while trying to contact NASA and everyone back on Earth doing whatever they can to get him rescued before it's too late. Matt Damon is perfect as Watney both because he has the acting chops to pull off the lone survivor without anyone to talk to persona, but because he's had practice being stranded and saved (see Interstellar and Saving Private Ryan). He's able to bring many facets to Watney that truly make us want to root for him. He's not like most stranded on a desert
Now, I haven't read the book, but everything I've heard about it is that it's just as brilliant. But, due to the amazing screenwriting adaptation by Drew Goddard (this dude is going to be HUGE very soon) he was able to take a wonderful book and turn it into an even better movie. It fills the gaps that the book is missing. While I haven't read it, like I said, this comes from very reliable sources. Everything about this movie is great and defies genre convention. For awhile, everything seems to be going right for Mark. Like too right. Like he's got this cheerful demeanor about everything and every single idea he has just... works out. I was starting to get worried that this was going to be the case eliminating all conflict in the film and making for an uninteresting story. Again... not the case. It's a slow build of everything is going to be all right and then like a row of dominoes it all comes crashing down. Everything Mark has spent a third of the movie doing to preserve his life is ruptured little by little until the end. Everything that can go wrong, goes wrong and you're left both wondering how he's going to survive and praying for a miracle. And the entire time... there's Watney cracking jokes, shit-eating grin on his face, and hope in his eyes. It's a brilliant character surrounded by an extremely harsh situation.
The surrounding performances are stellar as well. Jeff Daniels in his cocky boss role that he's started to love so much is a perfect balance of PR and heart as the president of NASA. Jessica Chastain, Michael Pena, Sean Bean, Donald Glover and everyone else whether a small role or a larger one all hold their own and contribute something special to the film. The only one who seemed to be entirely out of place was Kristen Wiig. Her character was that of a woman with constant worried face and always asking questions. There's no depth to the character or really any reason for the character to exist, yet it does. And with an unknown actor in the spot it would've just blended into the story calling zero attention to itself. But, the fact that it is Wiig makes me wonder why she wanted the role.
With everything on set done almost practically, everything looks real. You're never questioning the legitimacy of Mark's situation due to shoddy animation or direction. It's all real. Ridley Scott has created a Mars environment that finally doesn't suck (see Red Planet and Mission to Mars). The direction is precise and the soundtrack is perfect. I'm especially mentioning a long scene that amazingly incorporates David Bowie's Starman. While the year is winding down and I know we're going to have a couple of months full of award-worthy films... as of right now The Martian is the best movie I've seen this year. This is one not to miss, especially on the big screen.
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