The Martian

It’s been a long time since I’ve had to pause the movie and think about how I don’t want Matt Damon to stop colonizing Mars. I get that it’s mental to live there for some time, but apart from him doing well in the beginning, he had some really ironic and cynical remarks, which only made the movie better. Now I’m not even surprised that it won Best comedy at the Golden Globes. The award might be as cynical as Mark Watney, but who cares. The Martian is an absolutely amazing, realistic sci-fi movie and its story flows in a completely logical way. All while the story was written for a blog; that’s how far this sort of an enthusiastic expression can go. (02/28/2016)

An honestly-filmed blockbuster, and one of those rare cases where the creation of a blockbuster is justified. The Martian tries to appear serious, but you won't find any stargates or, heaven forbid, lightsabers in it. Ridley Scott works on a realistic depiction of the environment and tries to be technologically convincing. In a sense, it is Scott's return to his roots - this is how Prometheus should have been and then it wouldn't have ended up as a silly pop culture mishmash. The captivating beauty of the landscape of the red planet, endless space, and a lonely hero in the midst of nothingness. Thanks to its visual aspects, the film has a captivating atmosphere and the director skillfully doses tension. However, I did not actually feel any enthusiasm. The stranded astronaut is, in fact, a skillful follower of Ferdy the Ant. He goes through the story too confidently, as if he were always in control. Add a few lines, and he would appear like Bruce Willis in Die Hard. At the moment when Mark takes a piece of metal from a shattered wound, one would expect a storm of juicy curses, and, at other times a wave of despair, doubt, and confusion. It was simply lacking a piece of humanity. Matt Damon does not act badly, nor does anyone else, but there was something missing to make me relate to the characters. Maybe they seemed too clean, almost textbook perfect. The runtime is just right, and Scott knows when to cut the shot and not bore the audience. Americans, as usual, show that they are the best, but this time in an acceptable form. And the Russians have been replaced by the Chinese - clear proof of whom Hollywood considers the second superpower of today. I'm not crazy about The Martian, but overall, thumbs up, the film has the potential to become a sci-fi classic. Overall impression: 85%. (10/12/2015)

The Martian surprised me by not being about atmosphere and philosophizing, but about people and the joy of telling a positive story. It also offers a pool of inspirational ideas for emerging film editors. Matt Damon is great and Jeff Daniels got a good role after a long time. It is a pity that the movie has a weaker climax, which in the long shadow of Gravity has no chance to impress. If you compare The Martian to Prometheus, however... Ridley is still a champ. He just needs a good script. (10/06/2015)

The anti-Interstellar. Nolan’s sci-fi opus was a space colonisation western about the search for an alternative to our devastated blue planet. By contrast the “coloniser” in the delightful The Martian has to be rescued from a wilderness that somewhat resembles Monument Valley and returned to Earth. The celebration of the human ability to make maximum use of available resources is only one level of the narrative, which in the film is better interwoven with the parallel organisation of the rescue mission than it was in the book. The cutting between events on Earth and on Mars starts earlier than in the novel and the two storylines are better synchronised. As a result, the film has more momentum and, unlike Mark, it never loses its breath. Despite the individualistic title, Matt Damon’s lonely face on the poster, and its reputation as the ultimate professional drama for geeks, The Martian is, in my opinion, a particularly successful example of a story with a collective hero. Even in the interconnected world of high-speed internet, enabling media coverage of events in other countries, on other continents and even on another planet, it works best on the principle of mutual cooperation and coordination. Each of the many characters enjoys their own moment of glory. Thanks to their gradual introduction to the scene and the clear establishment of professional and personal relationships between them (there are no characters in the film who fight solely for themselves), we have no problem remembering them. Not only people of different races, ages and genders, but also of different nationalities join forces. The Martian creates the illusion that the individual comes first in a massive organisation like NASA, as well as in a totalitarian country like China. The creation of sound bridges between scenes and the precise editing, when a question directly or indirectly asked on Earth is answered in the following shot from Mars, reinforce the cohesiveness of the narrative and the impression of a global village, where even a distance of tens of millions of kilometres is not insurmountable. The Martian is outstanding feel-good entertainment that may not restore your faith in humanity, but it’s highly probable that your faith in Ridley Scott’s skill as a director will have been restored by the time the end credits roll. 80% (10/05/2015)

Best Ridley since 1982. The master finally left behind his megalomania and unique sense of over combining anything potentially impressive and filmed a technically brilliant, moderate yet emotionally nourishing celebration of humanity as a tenacious community that overcomes all problems with cynical humor and potato growing. Damon is the heart and soul of the film, which falls into model sentiment in a terrestrial storyline, but thanks to an unquenchable storehouse of optimism and catchphrases on Mars, keeps the viewer in an uncompromising bind, which it will use in the last quarter of the weightless finale. Ridley Scott quotes himself nonchalantly when he lets the freezing echoes of Alien be heard at the beginning, then turns the man battling the inhospitable cosmos into something completely opposite - in a feel good movie that triumphs over all its mistakes and loss of concentration with the immeasurable enthusiasm and intelligence that is still quite rare with pure "entertainment". Humanity will rise from shit. Je suis Martian. P.S. I suggest that it be voted that the Master has already found the Lost Paradise and can retire. (09/25/2015)