“Hi, I’m Astronaut Mark Watney, and I’m still alive… obviously.”
But he shouldn’t be. After the third manned mission to Mars (Ares III) goes horribly awry, Watney is left behind on the planet with no hope of rescue until Ares IV arrives in another four years. Unfortunately, he only has enough food to last him a year, and he lost his ability to communicate with NASA when the antenna snapped off in a storm and blew him away from his evacuating comrades.
Fortunately, though, Mark Watney is very smart. He’s also a botanist, and soon develops an ingenious way to grow his own food, make water, and fertilize the inorganic Martian soil.
All of this is buying him time, but that doesn’t help if NASA has no way to communicate with him and no plan for rescue. Tensions escalate on both planets as NASA works desperately to save Mark Watney.
The Martian is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Andy Weir, a NASA employee. Both my husband and I read the novel earlier this year. We both loved the vibrant, comical, realistic characters that Weir had created even in the midst of such a technical, complicated story. “I read an article that said that The Martian might be an example of the movie being even better than the book,” said moviegoer Elliott. “I can see how that could be true with such good acting and directing, but there were definitely some good scenes missing from the movie that took away from the whole story.”
Either way, the $108 million movie is worth a watch on the big screen. From the freshness of the story to the excellence of the production, the whole film is a feast for the imagination.
The Martian
Starring: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels
Run time: 2 hours 21 minutes
Rated: PG-13
See upcoming showtimes for The Martian here.
—-
Becca Garber
Staff Writer
Have a story you want to share? Contact us.
