I consider The Martian to be an utmost offence to humanity as a whole. The plot is so, so, so indulgent that I feel embarrassed to be an earthling. This is the deal: an astronaut called Mark, all-American guy, goes on a mannet mission to the red planet. Shit happens and the rest of the crew dies. The NASA folks back home assumes Mark is dead, too. SO: he must reach out to the home base and tell them that he is alive .... so that he can go home somehow. THEN when it finally dawns on the NASA crew that the guy is actually alive they collect a GIGANTIC mission to fetch the kid back through space to our planet. Mark himself is a master of inventiveness. He shows that all problems can be solved with a strong-willed "let's science the shit outtta this". He is the survivor-type, who doggedly goes to Work, that is, when he is not musing about Life and Science in his video diary. The Martian is of course little more than a fairy tale for adults that uses space travelling and science as ploys. The message is that you can do whatever if you just put your mind to it. So, shame on you, Ridley Scott, this film is in the worst possible league of individualist celebration of the very white, very male do-it-yourself-American. Poor Matt Damon tries to act the part, but well, I don't think anyone could save this kind of bad story.
The ONLY kind word I have to offer here is that terrible, terrible music from the 70's is used in a way that is simply brilliant and actually a bit moving at times.
Compared to The Martian, I realize why a film like Gravity shines forth as a far superior rendition of space-stuff. The latter film makes space seem, well, scary. The former film makes Mars seem as boring as a shopping mall on Friday night.
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