The Martian

Cast: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain(Melissa), Jeff Daniels(Head of NASA), Michael Peña(Rick, Astronaut), Kate Mara(Beth, Astronaut), Sebastian Stan(Chris, Astronaut), Aksel Hennie(Alex, Astronaut), Sean Bean(Mitch, Hemes Flight Director), Chiwetel Ejiofor(Vincent), Donald Glover(Rich, NASA Astronomer), Benedict Wong(Director, JPL), Eddy Ko(Chief Scientist, CSNA) and Chen Shu(Deputy Chief Scientist, CSNA)
Director: Ridley Scott
Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure



A warm Sci-Fi adventure story. You must not give it a miss if you enjoy Sci-Fi!




You may look forward to:

• Matt Damon is the leading man having most of the movie riding solo on his shoulders. He gives out a good performance, with most of the explanations easy to understand for a layman. His bout of optimism and hopeful journey in an unknown planet far from any approachable help is commendable!
• Ridley Scott does a good job in presenting a Sci-Fi flick which is not far too ambitious nor way too scientific for ordinary people to grasp. He uses simple techniques and plain explanations for its not so scientific audience to enjoy
• Jessica Chastain and her crew viz, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie have limited screen space, but they have notable roles to play. Specially that of Jessica's role by the end of the film
• Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Donald Glover, the key drivers of Mars mission from NASA have notable jobs again back from earth in covering up as well answering press
• Benedict Wong, Eddy Ko and Chen Shu have very limited contributions in terms of screen presence but the story have them contribute significantly

What you can sleep over:

This movie is primarily an entertainer, unlike a Christopher Nolan film, which is far fetched intelligent. This movie may make you feel surviving on Mars is no rocket science :D But i am sure it ain't a piece of cake either :)

The dampeners you should be aware of:

• Certain aspects which looked incomplete and slightly too idealistic, is the over the top optimism of the Mars survivor 'Mark Watney'. Over the entire duration, he never shows up any sign of losing hope, he at all times appears optimistic. Though he admits in the film otherwise!
• Again there were not many internal tussles with NASA in going out of the way for saving a lone astronaut while risking the others. Internal politics were more or less suppressed and looked pretty much smooth sailing, kind of unlikely!

My Rating: 3.5/5

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