The Martian

So the past month has been a pretty busy one. While I've seen a few movies lately, usually when I get this busy, I get the odd notion that TV is a better choice. Therefore I watch a lot of TV and think I can just get away with it. put aside the fact that the time exchange doesn't exactly make sense, its harder for me to write reviews on TV series and therefore not much gets done. Without a doubt, its a weird mindset. 

However, I am getting into a short window where I will be able to start blogging more and give you my thoughts on a couple movies that I've seen in the last month. And I think the best way to kick that off is to give you my thoughts on The Martian. 

The Martian stars Matt Damon as astronaut Mark Watney. Watney is apart of a NASA expedition set

in the not so distant future where he and his crew are sent to Mars. While its not very clear exactly what they're goal is on this trip to Mars, they are collecting samples of dirt, etc, its not really that important.

Its not incredibly important because a mere five minutes into the movie, the team decides to make an emergency exit from Mars due to a harsh dirt storm. As it is a quick exit, lots of stuff happens very quickly and a fast accident causes Mark to be left behind on Mars with no way to leave and no way to communicate with NASA back home. He finds himself the only person on Mars and needs to find a way to survive.

Right off the bat, you're probably thinking this movie is going to be the Castaway set on Mars with Damon as your Tom Hanks. And while there are elements of that movie in The Martian, it really isn't that movie. Watney spends the entire movie pretty much talking to himself in a log. And I have to give Damon a lot of credit here, he creates this character as an incredibly interesting and at many times, funny character.

When you think of the premise of this movie, a lot of it is a similar premise to Castaway. Watney has to figure out a way to survive for hundreds of days on a planet he can't grow things organically on, has no water, and no oxygen. He also needs to figure out a way to be rescued, and a way to communicate with NASA who believe him to be dead.

While the premise doesn't sound incredibly interesting, especially if you weren't a fan of castaway, after watching this movie, I think I probably could have had this movie just be Matt Damon surviving and talking to himself on Mars. Mark Watney is an interesting enough character that I could see myself enjoying a movie like that. The movie probably couldn't be as long as it was in that case, but I could still see it.

Fortunately however, this movie is not just about Mark Watney surviving on Mars, it also flips back to NASA and their response to Watney's disappearance, as well as when they eventually figure out that he is alive.

And holy smokes, this is a star studded cast.

Let's just take a look at Watney's other crew members.

You've got Jessica Chastain, Sebastian Stan, Kate Mara, Michael Pena. Even the actor who's name I don't know (Aksel Hennie) was really good and hey, he was in Hercules. 

That cast alone I would watch a movie with. That's a great cast. But it gets better once you get back to Earth and you meet the people at NASA. Sean Bean (Game of Thrones, and Lord of the Rings) Donald Glover (Childish Gambino) from Community is in this movie and he does a fantastic job. Even the people who aren't even that well known did a really good job and just meshed well in this cast to create this incredibly serious situation but at the same time made it very comical when it was needed. 

And of course you have the three big names when you're talking about the action on Earth and that is Chiwetel Ejifor, Jeff Daniels, and Kristen Wiig. These three are the main people in charge of the rescue mission and they work perfectly together. Its not often that you get such a star studded cast like this and they all work perfectly together. 

Every time Jeff Daniels is in a movie, I kind of wonder why he's not in more. Even in Dumb and

Dumber To (which I will get to that review eventually) he brings it. The man is just a powerhouse actor and continues to surprise me every time I see him.

Chiwetel Ejifor. I mean what is to be surprising about this. The guy is an awesome actor and he did an awesome job in this movie. That's not much of a surprise, especially if you've seen 12 Years a Slave. But its also good that Ejifor can be humorous even in a movie like this where its a great combination of serious and funny.

Then there's Kristen Wiig. What Wiig is doing here, I have no idea. But she proves that she can do more than just be funny in Bridesmaids. Was it a little bit distracting when I first saw her on screen that she was just a straight actor, a little bit. But as you go into the movie, she blends it perfectly, and really does a good job.

The action taking place on Earth, figuring out that Watney is alive, planning out the rescue, its just a great set up and its done very, very well.

And of course, like I've mentioned before, the main star of this movie of course is Matt Damon.

Its still pretty early to tell especially with all the movies coming out that will no doubt try to be Oscar

contenders, but I'm going to be pretty surprised if Damon doesn't get nominated for something in this. I don't think he'll win and I have to be careful that I'm not blowing this movie out of proportion, but he does give a really good performance.

Like I said, a lot of the entertainment in this movie is Watney trying to figure out how he's going to survive. The guy is a Botanist, which on the surface sounds really boring, but he takes that and makes it just down right interesting.

But on top of that, there's really a feeling of the human spirit in Mark Watney. He's faced with this horrible situation, all the odds are against him, and he decides that he's going to live. He flat out says that he's not going to die on this planet and seeing his struggle to try and fulfill that goal is fantastic.

And like I said, there's a theme of the persistence of humanity. There's some great comparisons to be made with this and the idea of manifest destiny, and survival in a harsh wilderness. Something that we've seen multiple times over and over again, and yet it becomes incredibly fresh when its Matt Damon trekking Mars.

Again, I don't want to blow this movie out of proportion because I think time will tell on whether or not this movie is really that great, but the thing I like about this movie is that its inspiring. You want Watney to survive, you want him to keep going, even though you look at his circumstances and say, Damn, if i was there, I'd throw myself out the airlock.

The two movies I've found the most comparison from in this movie is Interstellar and Gravity. For some reason, in the last few years, there has been a theme of having at least one movie set in space that just kills it. I've seen both movies and I've heard opinions on which one is better than the other.

Now I'm afraid of my immediate reaction to this movie because I feel like I have blinders on right now. But this movie was really damn good. I felt awesome coming out of this movie. Whereas Gravity is just a story of survival, The Martian is survival and excelling through that. Whereas Interstellar is a great sci fi space adventure, The Martian is more grounded and more relatable to a wider audience. Overall at this moment, I think Ridley Scott has excelled in the space stories and has only improved as we go along.

I might have to do a revisiting of this movie when I actually buy it because you better believe I'm going to buy this one, regardless of whether or not I have blinders on or not. But for now, I can say that The Martian is a fantastic movie and just down right entertaining. Its serious when it needs to be and does it well. Its funny when it needs to be and does it well. And its inspiring when it needs to be and does it well. This is a fun movie and definitely worth seeing if you haven't seen it already.

Again, I'll probably do a revisiting review later because right now I can really only think of the good things. I guess the length of the movie might get some people. I personally thought the time of this movie, while long, went by fast.

And I guess that you could possibly say that with such a huge star studded cast that it could maybe take you out of the viewing process if you're always saying, hey there's so and so.

I'm really nitpicking because I really didn't have much to say about this movie that goes against it. Its a solid movie and I really enjoyed it. Maybe I'll find something in the revisiting that I am no doubt going to do, but for now, this is probably one of my favorite movies of 2015 and I'm really looking forward to the success it has when award season rolls around.

But those are my thoughts on The Martian. If you have a differing opinion, I'd really want to hear it because I get the feeling that I have blinders on right now. Comment and Discuss in the comment section below. You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 and give me your thoughts on other movies as well as requests for future reviews. If you want future movie reviews and news you can follow me as well.

I'll leave you with this. James Corden has been doing this with a couple actors by having them act out all the movies they've been in. Here's that with Matt Damon. Enjoy!