FIRST MAN : Tuesday 16th October 2018.

'FIRST MAN' which I saw at my local multiplex this week, is an American biographical drama film based on the 2005 book by James R. Hansen titled 'First Man : The Life of Neil A. Armstrong' and is Directed and Co-Produced by Oscar winner Damien Chazelle of 'Whiplash' and 'La La Land' fame. Made for US$65M the film saw its World Premier screening at the Venice International Film Festival back in August, and was subsequently screened at the Telluride Film Festival and then the Toronto International Film Festival in early September. The film went on general release in the US last week too having received generally widespread critical praise for Chazelle's Direction, the performances of Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy especially, the score and the cinematography. Box Office receipts so far amount to US$30M.

The film charts the riveting story of NASA’s mission to land a man on the moon by the time the clock ticks over into 1970, focusing on Neil Armstrong and the years 1961-1969. Launching (literally) in 1961, we see Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) struggling at the controls as a NASA test pilot of an X-15 experimental hypersonic rocket powered aircraft that was able to reach the edge of outer space, when after a moment of weightlessness the plane inadvertently bounces off the atmosphere. Even though he successfully manages to navigate the plane to a safe landing somewhere in the Mojave Desert, his superiors air their concerns about his recent spate of mishaps, and therefore choose to ground him. Meanwhile, his young daughter Karen, has a brain tumour, and is receiving cutting edge treatment. But despite this, Armstrong is distracted and pours over books, keeps copious notes on her symptoms, treatment and searches out some possible cure. But, before long Karen passes, and as any father would be, Armstrong is gutted.

Shortly afterwards Armstrong applies for Project Gemini (NASA's second human spaceflight programme) and is accepted, requiring Armstrong, his wife Janet (Claire Foy) and son Rick (Luke Winters) to move to Houston, together with a bunch of other astronauts chosen to take part in the Gemini Programme. Here he befriends Elliot See (Patrick Fugit) and Ed White (Jason Clarke) whilst under the watchful eye of Deke Slayton (Kyle Chandler) - NASA's first Chief of the Astronaut Office. Up to this point, them pesky Russians have eclipsed Uncle Sam in every aspect of the '60's Space Race, as so Slayton states in no uncertain terms the importance of Project Gemini as a precursor to the Apollo missions and the ultimate aim of putting a man on the moon by the close of the decade. Armstrong and the chosen handful of hopefuls are put through a rigorous training regime that tests them to the very limits of their endurance . . . and beyond.

Meanwhile, Janet gives birth to another son, Mark (Connor Blodgett). After the Ruskies notch up another first by performing an EVA (ExtraVehicular Activity - a spacewalk performed outside a craft orbiting the Earth), Armstrong is advised by Slayton that he has been chosen to be the Commander of Gemini 8 which would see the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit, with David Scott (Christoper Abbott) as his pilot. Armstrong and Scott successfully launch on Gemini 8 and dock as planned with the Agena Target Vehicle in space. After celebrating their success, things go rapidly pair shaped as the docked pairing of space craft begins to spin uncontrollably. Armstrong is able to successfully undock the two craft, but Gemini continues to spin at an ever increasing rate. After almost blacking out, Armstrong is able to bring the rapidly rotating craft under control and safely aborts the mission, saving their lives in the process. Janet, however, has had the privilege of listening in to their radio transmission is none too impressed with her husbands near death experience and promptly berates Slayton saying that they are all 'just a bunch of boys playing with balsa wood models . . .  you don't have anything under control'.

In due course Ed White announces that he has been selected for the Apollo 1 Mission together with Gus Grissom (Shea Whigham) and Roger Chaffee (Cory Michael Smith). During a launch simulation test on Apollo 1 on 27th January 1967, a fire inside the cabin and the resultant explosion takes the lives of White, Grissom and Chaffee. Armstrong meanwhile is representing NASA at a White House function, when he is interrupted by an urgent phone call from Slayton, advising him of this tragedy. A year or so later Armstrong is testing a Lunar Landing Research Vehicle and is nearly killed in the process, ejecting over a field and being dragged along the ground by his parachute, while the test vehicle crashes to the ground in a ball of flame.

Shortly afterwards Armstrong is advised by Slayton that he has been chosen to command the Apollo 11 Mission with a view to this culminating in a Moon landing. His crew will be Buzz Aldrin (Corey Stoll) and Michael Collins (Lukas Haas). Collins will pilot the command module Columbia alone in orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin are on the lunar surface. Shortly after, the three astronauts hold a Press Conference where Armstrong is particularly blunt and succinct in his answers to the gathered world press, leaving Aldrin to interject with more broader and lighthearted answers.

The night before the launch while Armstrong is needlessly busying himself with packing, Janet confronts him about the strong possibility that he won't survive the Mission, and steadfastly demands that he explains the risks to both Rick and Mark - his young sons. Armstrong is evasive and is clearly uncomfortable with such a confronting and potentially emotional conversation with his two boys, let alone his wife. After a brief conversation around the dinner table before the boys bedtime, Armstrong bids his boys farewell and kisses his wife goodbye, and departs for the Moon.

The day arrives, and Apollo 11 successfully launches, and within four days of flight touches down on the surface of the Moon on 20th July 1969. Armstrong became the first person to step onto the lunar surface six hours after landing on 21st July, with those immortal words 'one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind', with Aldrin joining him some twenty minutes later. After exploring the surface for some time, Armstrong walks over to a small crater and gently drops into it a bracelet that was his daughter's - forever leaving a memento to her memory on the surface of that far away place. Having spent the best part of whole day collecting samples, taking photographs, observing the Moon's surface, and going walkabout, the pair take off to rejoin Collins aboard the Columbia and head back to Earth landing in the North Pacific Ocean on the afternoon of 24th July 1969. The crew are placed in quarantine for a month. Janet visits Armstrong and through the glass panels of his temporary isolation, the pair share a quiet moment of contemplation, touching hands through the plate glass.

The film also stars Ciaran Hinds as Robert R. Gilruth - the first Director of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Centre and Pablo Schreiber as Jim Lovell, the backup Commander on Armstrong's Apollo 11 Mission.

Here, continuing with his run of Academy Award success, Damien Chazelle has crafted a nuanced film that will be surely worthy of some Oscar consideration come nomination season. Rather than the all too common chest beating and hero worship associated with such space age films, here 'First Man' paints a picture of a an everyday ordinary man pushed to extraordinary lengths in his quiet determination to be the first man on the Moon. In equal measure we see the emotion, the joy and the tragedy of Armstrong's every day family life coupled with the errors, flaws, accidents and incidents and the all too many deaths experienced by NASA and Armstrong's fellow astronaut colleagues during the course of those Gemini and Apollo Missions. Gosling gives a stoic and reserved performance as both the troubled and completely focused on his day job at the expense of his family Armstrong; while Foy more than ably supports as the no bullshit tell it as it is supportive, caring and understanding (to a point) wife. Chazelle's attention to detail throughout the film cannot be faulted, and his recreation of the era, the inner workings of NASA, and the failures and successes of the technology of the time really make this film. Concentrating on the '60's era only and the events leading up to the first Moon landing was Chazelle's choice and who can argue with that, but perhaps an insight into the reserved man post that heroic journey to go boldly where no man has gone before would have rounded out the film more completely. Nonetheless, certainly worth the price of your ticket, and you should see this on the big screen for sure.

'First Man' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, out of a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

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-