The Martian

Matt Damon needs to be rescued. Again… So the bestseller Handbook of Young Martians written by Bear Grylls finally got a blockbuster film adaptation. And this adaptation is so successful that it rectifies most of the weak points of the original (especially the repetitiveness of the first half). In any case, advertising of NASA through the fate of the botanical MacGyver, who starts to like Abba, sand, red, taste of potato and solitude, is fun, stylish and what is nice is that it is relaxed and humanistic in a feel good style that is rather unusual in terms of survival films (let alone sci-fi blockbusters). It is as unusual as refreshing and surprisingly fitting. (10/06/2015)

An adventure film, rather than sci-fi; a crowd pleaser, rather than survival; feel-good, rather than smart. But even with all these dichotomies, I would’ve rated with it with five stars as Ridley Scott garners all the strengths of his old age to put together a technically flawless film that treads from beginning to end, it’s not even for a moment boring and the most tense scenes are reliably gripping. But for me it’s just too safe and user-friendly. 85 % (10/18/2015)

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)

In the space of three years comes a third major sci-fi hit that may not be all that much science fiction. By contrast, it's the blockbuster approach that works best, the hallmark of Scott's unmistakable craft confidence that last affected me this way 14 years ago. Sure, Goddard loses the plot a fair bit at the end, but the celebration of human knowledge and indomitable will is literally palpable through the screen for the vast majority of the runtime. I don't think anyone else will conjure up such feel-good emotions this year. 4 ½. PS: It's nice to see a Ridley Scott film in the movie theater that doesn't make you cry after watching it that you have to wait for the DC Blu-ray to fully appreciate it. PPS: I felt full satisfaction after the second screening. It actually works even at the end. A better "feel-good" film than Love Actually. (10/18/2015)

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)