The Martian Review

For years I’ve had an argument with many a person informing them the same thing every time “Ridley Scott doesn’t have as many great films as you think he does”, shock and horror for some people, but I’ve always alarmed them when I can name more great Rob Reiner films than Ridley Scott films. However, Ridley Scott is undisputedly a great director who has a great style that is really great cinema, Prometheus looks and feels great but has an incredibly poor story, The Councillor is a cool and slick film with a monotonous script. So the problem is evident, Ridley Scott can’t find a good screenwriter. There’s an old saying in film “there’s been many bad films made from good scripts, but there’s never been a good film made from a bad script”. With The Martian, Scott has addressed this problem by directing a film based on sound work, originally the best-selling book by Andy Weir, but to a much larger extent the brilliant script from writer Drew Goddard. Goddard’s script is filled with fun and comedy which really lifts the film away from being anything tonally morose given that it’s a man marooned on a planet thousands of miles from home. What’s also great is the way he manages to make the science of the film incredibly digestible (some realistic, some a lot less so). If there’s a problem with his script it’s the pacing, it’s a difficult thing to get right given how long he is marooned on mars, but the pacing seems rushed towards then end meaning the film spends too long with Mark Watney at the beginning and brushes over a big period of time towards the end. The performances are also uniformly brilliant with a stellar supporting cast. But this film rests on its leading man, given that Matt Damon has to act alone for 90% of the film, he really owns every second onscreen. Damon’s Mark Watney is a shining example of man’s will to survive as well as his own ingenuity. Watney is a positive character who maintains the comic tone of the film, but shows his strains when things go wrong before picking himself back up again. The films faults increase in its last act, there are clichéd moments of people watching the events unfold in city centres around the world, and part of me really didn’t want to see Mark back on Earth once he’s been rescued. All in all though it shows that if given a good script, Scott can make a great film.  (Low 5 Stars)