THE MARTIAN : Wednesday 7th October 2015

I had to see 'THE MARTIAN' this week, being a big fan of Ridley Scott who is back doing his Sci-Fi best with his latest offering now out on general release and taken from the 2011 novel of the same name by Andy Weir. Co-Produced by Scott this film features an all star cast and was made for US$108M, and filmed on a huge sound stage in Hungary and in Jordan where a desert wadi served as a practical back drop for the red planet. The film premiered at the recent Toronto International Film Festival and at the time of writing has already grossed US$132M in Box Office receipts.

The film is set sometime in the near future, although we are not told exactly when, but suffice to say we have the technology to get a Team to Mars and build a base camp there. And so, we meet that Team of six going about their business on Mars, collecting samples, mapping out the area, and doing what you do when on a distant planet. All seems perfectly normal and copacetic until a severe storm engulfs them with only little advance warning. Needing to make a quick decision to stay or go, they board their vessel to take them back to the mothership and back home to Earth - some two years away or so. During the maelstrom Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is struck by flying debris, and thrown back into the storm and beyond reach, now believed dead since all communication with him has been lost. Commanding Officer Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain) searches for a brief time, but as the storm continues to intensify the need to depart quickly becomes the overarching priority to save the remaining crew. She gives the order to depart, leaving Watney behind, presumed dead.

Back on Earth, Head of NASA Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels) advises the world that Mark Watney was killed in a freak accident during a storm and that the remaining crew are safe and are now making their long way home. Watney is honoured, there is a state funeral and the focus switches to bringing the crew of the Ares III manned mission home safe on their ship Hermes. By now a few months have past on Earth, but back on Mars Mark Watney is not dead, but very much alive & kicking, albeit injured at the time of the storm but made good from some creative self-surgery and a staple gun.

Realising the challenges that lie ahead he needs to adapt to survive, or drown & die in his own sorrows. As it is Watney is made of sterner stuff, is resilient, inventive, motivated, resourceful and above all else, a Botanist. As such, he quickly converts a section of his base camp to a greenhouse, shovels in few hundred weight of Mars red soil and plants potatoes (yes, fresh spuds were stored in cryovac to cook fresh intergalactic style) in a fertilised mix of red soil and human faeces individually vac-packed away as it is in space! Lo and behold a few months later, and Watney proclaims himself 'the best Botanist on the planet '. . . and he is! With his rations having to sustain for longer and longer, there's always a humble potato to sustain with lashings of ketchup!

Meanwhile back on the home planet Sanders has revealed to the world that Watney is in fact alive having picked up various signals and broadcasts that Watney has figured out how to make using the technology he has been able to muster, repair and adapt to communicate that he is very much alive. By now months have passed by and the crew on the mothership returning to Earth have not yet been advised that the man they left behind, believed dead, is in fact still alive. At home Sanders begins to mobilise the necessary resources to return Watney, but this is going to be no easy and no speedy process, and they know that Watney's time is precious and running out.

NASA hatch a plan to send a probe to Mars with sufficient supplies aboard to sustain Watney until the next manned mission on Ares IV - which based on build time, launch and journey will be close to four years. On Mars Watney records his daily activities, his progress, his thoughts, ideas and ramblings on a video journal - this helps him maintain his sanity and moves the story along as he tries to figure out how to establish communications back to Earth and how he can get to the landing site for Ares IV which already contains some of the basic infrastructure for that planned future landing - but it is a long way away and the rover he uses for transport is only capable of travelling short distances before its batteries need recharging, and at night time out in the open the temperatures drop to freezing very quickly too.

Watney also suffers a major setback when an airlock into his base camp explodes ripping open a side wall into the makeshift greenhouse that he has fabricated in which his potato crops grow. The crop is destroyed and with it his ability to grow more, so reducing his food supply which he must now ration further. On Earth, the probe containing Watney's supplies is launched, but this was a rush job, corners were cut and pressures were bought to bear to respond quickly. With an air of excitement at NASA launch control, the probe takes off but within minutes explodes mid-air after launch, leaving the ground Teams despondent and wondering what next.

By now the world is watching every development that NASA makes and is behind the rescue mission to bring Watney home. Enter the Chinese National Space Agency who have secretly developed their own booster rocket technology that could carry the payload needed safely, reliably and accurately to Mars. They agree to share this with NASA and so preparations are made but the time it will take to reach Mars versus the calculated time that Watney has left is becoming increasingly slim, and risky.

Alternatively astrodynamicist Rich Purnell (Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino) has calculated a plan to slingshot the returning crew aboard Hermes around Earth using its gravitational pull, and to intercept the probe and return to Mars to pick up their colleague. Lewis made the decision to leave Watney behind and abort the mission in the first place and so is now torn between her overwhelming need to return to bring him home, and the safety of her remaining crew mates, and the fact that this would mean an additional 15 months+ of space time. Only by unanimous decision would she do it - and that unanimous decision is given very quickly by the crew.

And so preparations are made accordingly with the landing site of the future Ares IV mission being where Watney needs to get to in order that he can lift off from there in the launch vehicle to intercept in space with the Hermes. On Earth the Teams determine that the launch vehicle as it stands is too overladen with weight for the journey required and so they instruct Watney to strip it down to the barest of essentials, including windows and nose cone - his spacesuit will ultimately protect him against the vacuum of space and the hazards associated with this flight. As Hermes approaches the count-down is readied and Watney prepares himself for launch. All goes well with the launch but the trajectory is off and there is an increasing danger that one will not intercept with the other, so here some quick thinking is necessary by Lewis, her crew and the lone Watney, and ultimately, they all live happily ever after!

In strong supporting roles there is also Chiwetel Ejiofor as Vincent Kapoor, and Sean Bean as Mitch Henderson both NASA Mission Directors, Kristen Wiig as Annie Montrose the NASA spokesperson,  and fellow astronauts Michael Pena as Rick Martinez, Kate Mara as Beth Johanssen, Sebastian Stan as Chris Beck, and Aksel Hennie as Alex Vogel. This is a solidly entertaining film that delivers on many levels. Scott here is in familiar territory having given us so many standout Sci-Fi offerings over the years that you can tell he is in his comfort zone here adapting an already strong and popular story with great visuals, just the right amount of humour, solid performances from the principle cast, sufficient moments of action and enough tension, anticipation and excitement to sustain its 140 minutes of run time. And really, who cares how many times Hollywood has to rescue Matt Damon - this is a good wholesome mix of science and entertainment that is certainly worth checking out, and if you liked 'Interstellar' and 'Gravity', you'll enjoy this.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-