Fish and Cherries Productions

The Martian, to the surprise of absolutely no one, is quite good. The whole thing has a sort of levity to it, given the heavy subject matter. Part of that comes from the fact that this film made space wonderful and marvelous again, from the grace of people in zero-g to the vast, alien landscapes of Mars. Another big strength of the film is that it shows mankind really coming together to save this one stranded astronaut. There’s no pointlessly overlong bickering or unnecessary villain, just problem solving and the ultimate human endeavor to overcome the impossible.

The ending is actually quite harrowing because if there’s one slip up in space, you’re done for (which you may remember me talking about in a previous musing). Regardless of the terror, the ingenuity involved in it and simply surviving on an inhospitable planet is so astounding, it’s hard not to be dragged in. I don’t know how accurate the science is, but since the movie took very few liberties with the book, I’m betting that it was well enough researched. Most of you are probably already planning to see The Martian, but just in case, go see The Martian.