Went to see this film on Wednesday evening with my husband and son at the Leeds/Bradford Odeon.
IMDB says: During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meagre supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.
In this Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner) directed film taken from the book by Andy Weir (The Egg, Ägget) and screenplay written by Drew Goddard (Daredevil, World War Z), Matt Damon (The Bourne Identity, Saving Private Ryan) plays Mark Watney the astronaut left behind by fellow crew members Lewis (Jessica Chastain: The Help, Zero Dark Thirty), Martinez (Michael Peña: Fury, American Hustle), Johanssen (127 Hours, Shooter), Beck (Sebastian Stan: Black Swan, Captain America) and Vogel (Askel Hennie: Headhunters, Hercules) when they believe him to be dead.
NASA also believe this and hold a lovely funeral, but things soon change when Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor: 12 Years A Slave, Children of Men) asks Mindy Park (Mackenzie Davis: That Awkward Moment, What If), a young NASA engineer, for footage of Mars and she spots evidence that the rover has moved. It can only mean one thing, Watney is alive.
The decision about what to do lies with Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels: Looper, Speed), Annie Montrose (Kristen Wiig: Bridesmaids, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty) and Mitch Henderson (Sean Bean: Lord of the Rings, Goldeneye). Asking Bruce Ng (Benedict Wong: Prometheus, Moon) and his team to come up with a solution, it is young Rich Purnell (Donald Glover: Community, Magic Mike XXL) who works out the answer.
This film really pulls you in to the journey of main character Watney and he is a strong enough character to hold the majority of the movie. You feel his frustration, boredom and determination and are on the edge of your seat sometimes as he battles the harsh elements of Mars. The landscape of the planet is visually stunning and the storms when they come, cause believable drama.
The acting throughout is superb, as I expected with such a stellar (excuse the pun) cast and the story was compelling, one definitely for the big screen though.
Trivia: The film was shot in Wadi Rum, Jordan which has a red coloured desert, Red Planet, the Mars Mission film was also shot here. The writer of the book The Martian, Andy Weir, first published it for free on his blog and when people asked for a downloadable form, he put it on Amazon for 99 cents. When Donald Glover falls in the scene, this is real, it happened during a first take and was kept in the film. A real potato farm was installed in the studio in various stages of growth for the filming which took around 70 days.
Tagline: Help is only 140 million miles away. 8.5/10
#TheMartian #MattDamon #JessicaChastain #JeffDaniels #Chiwetel Ejiofor
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