THE MARTIAN: Seen it yet? Recommend it?

a reply to: IAMTAT

Funny also.
Oscar's? I think it will win a couple at least.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: blupblup

If it follows the book at all, there shouldn't be. The book was all more like Robinson Crusoe on Mars in the sense that he got dealt a bad hand, got marooned and had to make do with what he had to survive and get rescued.

Well exactly but there are people going into this (I guess) thinking it'll be like Interstellar because it has Matt Damon trapped on a planet and that it'll have weird time loops or aliens or something, there are even threads asking if it's a prequel to Interstellar...

*rolls eyes*

And why people are comparing it to Contact or Moon or Interstellar I don't know, totally different kind of film but there are elements of many sci-fi films within the film but yes, it's mostly Robinson Crusoe on Mars.

a reply to: blupblup

There was a great deal 'Apollo 13' type drama to it, as well.

Saw it last night in 3d and found it to be a great entertaining film.
The cinematography alone made it worth seeing.
Do I think it will go down as an all time great , no I dont but it is a film that will most likely win Oscars and warrants any praise it gets.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: IAMTAT

Saw a screener copy last week, it was fantastic, I really enjoyed the film as it stuck close to the book in almost all major plot points.

!!!!WARNING POTENTIAL SPOILERS...maybe? BEWARE!!!!!



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Uh...

Let's see...they changed the opening/beginning. They left out the 2nd rover. They left out the sand storm/solar panel crisis. He didn't wear a bulky space suit at the end. And Lewis stayed in the ship. The left out the Chinese deal.

They completely changed the ending to something that never happened with other characters. They glossed over 7 entire months with "7 Months Later..."

They hardly explained how he did anything. They left out his "drill incident". The left out him spelling with rocks. He never mentioned Martian coffee. The left out Aquaman. They censored all the jokes.

They GUTTED this book. They ruined the ending in such a way I almost walked out of the theatre.

I own the hard copy AND the audio book. I was so stoked for this movie. I was so disappointed.

Oh, and Dr. Kapoor is INDIAN.

If I hadn't read the book a few times I'd probably enjoy it...

Saw this last night. What a great movie.
Not sure it dealt so well with the psychological issues that would go with being stranded like that but it was an awesome survival flick.

If you got 2 hours to waste.

Go for it.

I loved the 'organic' Martian potato's.

I stopped watching after an hour.

a reply to: IAMTAT
Just came home from watching it. I liked it. Suspenseful. Bit Hollywood, but still very good. I haven't been out to a movie in many years.

I saw it today and felt cheated. Bad acting, uninteresting characters, way to much green screen/poorly done, contrived script....I expected more from Ridley Scott

I saw it and enjoyed it. I did read the book first, but it was an enjoyable 2 hours.

I saw this movie today (actually yesterday) and have a mixed response to it, but mostly disappointment. Visually, the movie looks very good, as one would expect of a Ridley Scott ("creator of worlds") movie. Generally, I had no complaints with the acting. Anything Matt Damon does is usually pretty good, but this movie didn't really require a lot of acting chops from him.

The most irritating thing about the movie for me was the Scorcese-ized sound track. I very nearly walked out at one point when a somewhat lengthy sequence of space/technical activities was shown to the tune of an asinine and loud pop song.

I should think that one of the most riveting things about space would be the silence, but there was no concerted attempt in the movie script to explore that a little. For me this movie is clearly a work of business, not a work of art. Ridley Scott is capable of much better.

NASA's agenda and the American government's agenda were present in the film, I believe, in the sense that the action, at times, was suggestive of the exploits of the Apollo astronauts. (Disclaimer: I believe the Moon landings were faked.) To some extent the official narrative of the space agencies was reinforced by this film.

I don't think there is a market for the sort of film I would have preferred. I think we just haven't had enough lived experience in space to make good space movies.

Mars, the planet, was, for me, the star of the movie, but unfortunately it only made cameo appearances.

All the hardware, equipment, etc. looked extremely good. As I said at the beginning, the movie looks fine. The script itself was a disappointment and some of the action looked absurd to me.

I would still recommend it as representing the current state of the art for this sort of sci-fi thing. Good visually, but vapid script. Science nerds probably loved it.

a reply to: IAMTAT
I enjoyed the movie. A couple things didn't make sense to me but I won't get into them here, as they might be spoilers.

a reply to: ipsedixit

Re: music....

About that...in the book there's a running joke that all he had to listen to was terrible disco music.

a reply to: MystikMushroom
I never read the book but remember several comments in the movie where he rags on the woman the music belonged to.

a reply to: Skid Mark

The book is a gazillion times better. If you don't have the time to commit to the book, the audio book is very, very well done. They picked a very good person to do the reading.

I don't even listen to morning radio on my way to work... I just do audio books. I'm starting to get upset, all the audio books I've been listening to are now being made into tv/movies...

Case in point? The Expanse. They ruined that too by bringing to to the screen

The book made it feel a lot more like a Robinson Carusoe mixed with MacGyver, and a lot of sarcastic humor...They had to cut a lot from the book.

And no, in the book he never exited the capsule and did that ridiculous crap. They totally changed the ending for no good reason.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

I realize that but I think the movie maker turned it into something of a crutch at times to cover slap dash story telling. I think his time would have been better spent making other artistic points.

I would have handled the music problem something like this:

"It was disappointing to discover that my fellow crew member had packed only disco, no classics, no jazz. Listening to music was out."

Having the music in the film was too much of a generic product endorsement for pop culture, as if people couldn't exist without pop music.

a reply to: MystikMushroom
I'll have to find the book then.

I hate it when they butcher a book for a show or movie. I won't watch Under the Dome or Bag of Bones (both based on Stephen King books) because of the ridiculous crap they pulled.

a reply to: Skid Mark

What kills me is how directors/screen writers will arbitrarily change things for...the sake of change?

A lot of details in The Martian were stripped out, and it made Damon's character appear almost "god-like" in the movie. Things were much more dire in the book, and you wanted to cheer along with him after he struggled so hard for every little triumph he had.

He actually had TWO rovers, and the whole sandstorm near the end almost killed him. They never went into detail how he narrowly managed to escape.

Watched and liked