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Movies Ashdoc's Movie Review---The Martian

ashdoc

Movie Critic
SPNer
Jul 19, 2011
391
219
49
Space---the great beyond....also an unforgiving zone where oxygen needed by humans to breath and food needed to eat does not exist....
Obviously therefore , space is the ultimate adventure---for the thrills here are truly death defying.....and to deliver those thrills in front of us in our cushioned seats is Hollywood.....

Unlike 'Interstellar' , this movie does not try to explore horizons which are beyond our realm....manned missions to the moon have already been done and a manned mission to mars does not really seem beyond reach....

So Matt Damon plays an astronaut who remains marooned on mars after he gets swept away in a storm on that planet while the others along with him manage to escape....he is presumed dead by them and they are back in their spaceship for their return journey to earth....
Determined to survive , Matt devises techniques to grow vegetables on mars using his own excreta as manure , and reactivates an old mars station to make contact with those on earth....

Declared dead , NASA is thoroughly embarrassed to admit that Matt is actually alive....and I thought for a moment that they were going to abandon Matt to escape the embarrassment of admitting their mistake---thus paving the way for a act of villainy and the role of a villain...but that did not happen . This I thought was a major flaw in the film . A negative character playing spoilsport in attempts to bring back Matt would have created real drama and tension in the movie....

So all are goody goody and want to help Matt , even the Chinese . Yeah , even the Chinese pitch in with a plan to help Matt by using their own spacecraft . Ultimately however , NASA has to take a decision over taking their help . But the astronauts who escaped leaving Matt behind have their own plans to help Matt using their spaceship and things move out of the control of NASA's command center .

So does Matt make it back ??
Who helps him come home , his mates or the Chinese ?? Watch the movie for the answers . ( Clue to the answer---showing NASA taking Chinese help to bring back their man be tantamount to admit that the days of America's dominance are over , and Hollywood is loathe to admit that
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The biggest problem of all---the problem arising due to solitary existence in a remote part of the solar system with no one for company and no love or sex , is not shown in the film at all.....Matt shows no signs of mental breakdown even living alone for such a period...
Or maybe he is too occupied with the day to day problems of survival to even notice that....

The film shows how NASA is the showpiece of the new multicultural America , with Indians and Chinese and blacks and hispanics playing key roles . The rescue mission for Matt---that is shown all too well , with authentic photography or rather special effects of space and the insides of spacecrafts . The visuals of the red and arid landscape of mars and Matt traversing them with philosophical thoughts in his mind look epic . And behind all this is the foreboding that he might not even make it back alive....

Background score is okay , and I liked the old disco songs being played even though Matt was distinctly shown not relishing them in the movie---'Waterloo' by ABBA being my favourite....

No violence is there in the movie , except that by the atmospheric elements . The movie is a little too long , but the audience didn't seem to mind nor did I .

Verdict---Good .
Three stars .
 

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