The Martian (2015)

Matt Damon’s astronaut Mark Watney is left stranded on Mars after his crew are forced into an emergency exit from the planet; assuming that, after Mark has just been hit by debris in the escape, he’s dead. Ridley Scott has directed five films since this 2015 effort, and none of them are anywhere near as good as The Martian. Scott blends comedy and suspense to a perfect mesh here, as well as keeping you hooked with a sprawling array of technical jargon that at once dumbfounds and intrigues. The Martian calls to mind Duncan Jones’ low-key masterpiece Moon (2009) with its themes of isolation and mental strain, but it’s a very different film with its comedic tone throughout, finding the right balance between its light hearted touch and mortal peril. It also reminded me of Interstellar (2014), Christopher Nolan’s black hole behemoth, that although larger in scale in terms of spectacle, remains one of his weaker movies (not to say that it’s not still hugely impressive) and funnily enough lacks some of the warm humanity on display in The Martian, despite its central relationship being between Father and Daughter (Jessica Chastain incidentally, who also is Watney’s superior in The Martian). The performances are all enjoyable, and Matt Damon (who also pops up in Interstellar) throws up one of his finest here; we all knew he was capable of cracking a comedic cameo, but he combines that with scenes of hopelessness in a display that deservedly led to numerous award nominations. It’s length is a tad stretched at nearly two and a half hours, but that’s a small complaint about a film that is full of ingenious invention and keeps you gripped from start to finish, almost constantly keeping a smile on your face as well. 8.1/10