By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)
Just when you think it’s safe to venture back into space after Chris Nolan’s Interstellar, think again. For actor Matt Damon, what was hinted at in one film says too much in what could happen in his next film, The Martian. Maybe the cosmos believes he’s simply a whipping boy. While his range of films have varied in quality over the years, thankfully he continues trudging on. While under the direction of Ridley Scott, he’s very likeable as Mark Watney, a castaway seemingly left for dead on the planet Mars.
The crew hurriedly left the planet because of a massive dust storm, and people at headquarters are at odds over what to do when everyone realizes Watney is still alive. I wondered how this film would work since it can not mirror the Tom Hanks film where he got lost at sea. Much of that did not have him talking to himself. Scott’s script and the book this movie is based on had Watney chronicling his life, so the people from the next mission can learn from his attempts to terraform the planet. He has to in order to survive, because he’s banking on hope that NASA will discover that he’s still alive.